It gives me great pleasure to have this opportunity to address you on this very important occasion – The Early Childhood Development (ECD) Indaba – where we have invited under one roof various stakeholders to engage on the migration of the ECD function from the Department of Social Development to the Basic Education Department.
We are gathered here in this Indaba themed: “Providing the Children of KwaZulu-Natal a Flying Start to the Future” to do exactly that – which is to unlock the flying start of the future of our children in the province by giving them quality education at a foundation level. We do this, ladies and gentlemen, because we have the full appreciation of the impact of solid and quality education at the ECD level.
Just recently, South Africa viewed early childhood development (ECD) as a comprehensive approach to programmes and policies for children from birth to seven years of age. It defined ECD as a crucial service towards the protection of the rights of children to develop their full cognitive, emotional, social and physical potential.
This ECD Indaba takes place during Rights Month in our country. It also coincides with Library Week 2022 which is themed: “ReImagine! RePurpose! ReDiscover. The Bill of Rights in our Constitution recognizes the freedom of access to information as a basic human right.
In this regard, let me hasten to pay tribute to writers in all our languages who are publishing learning materials for the ECD sector and unlocking the imagination of the children of our beautiful country. With moves by our national government to advance mother-tongue teaching in an effort to improve learning outcomes, we wish to invite more writers to research and publish learning materials for the sector in all our indigenous languages.
Human Rights Month reminds us of the renowned international Human Rights icon, founding President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Madiba spent his years in as President and after he retired to contribute to the wellbeing of the children of South Africa because he firmly believed that children are our country’s greatest treasure. He believed that there can be no keener revelation about a society’s soul and moral fiber than how it treats its children. On Human Rights Months, we call on all society, leaders, and stakeholders to play their part in protecting our children from violence and abuse. Let us all rise to ensure that we contribute in their full development by supporting their intellectual, spiritual, and physical development from the time they are conceived until they can stand on their own.
Early Childhood Development cannot be separated from the goal of justice and achieving equality. It cannot be removed from the objective of creating a South Africa that is at peace with itself and the world, a South Africa which is truly united, non-racial, non-sexist, equal, and prosperous.
Receiving the Nobel Prize Award for in Oslo on International Human Rights Day on 10 December 1993, President Mandela expressed his wish for a free, democratic South Africa when he said in his acceptance speech:
“The children must, at last, play in the open veld, no longer tortured by the pangs of hunger or ravaged by the disease or threatened with the scourge of ignorance, molestation and abuse, and no longer required to engage in deeds whose gravity exceeds the demands of their tender years.”
THE JOURNEY WE HAVE TRAVELLED
Ladies and Gentlemen, as we meet today, our country continues to be known as the most unequal society in the world. These inequalities were inherited from our apartheid past where even the provision of skills and education was a function of racial discrimination and national oppression.
Historically, early learning was not considered as a component of childcare in South Africa. Instead, programmes related to ECD focused primarily on “day care”, emphasising the need for basic care and nutrition as the essential function.
Before 1994, the apartheid state is said to have invested ten times more in the basic education of white learners as compared to black children.
Research clearly shows that colonialism and apartheid, along with the resultant socio-economic inequalities, deprived most South African children of their fundamental socio-economic rights, including their right to early education.
Organisations like UNICEF and other global research institutions continue to demonstrate that early childhood development (ECD) interventions can protect children against the effects of poverty.
In a country like ours with deep levels of poverty, unemployment, inequality, and violence, there is no doubt that investment in quality ECD programmes for young children has a significant effect on reducing poverty and inequality across society.
Since the dawn of democracy on 27 April1994, our country has made great strides in realising the right to education. We made education an apex priority ensuring that we invest in building an efficient, accessible and quality education system for children and adolescents.
In line with our Bill of Rights and Constitution, Section 80 of the Children's Act No 38 of 2005, provides early childhood development services.
In 2015, there were 8 207 723 children from birth to 6 years living in South Africa – with the largest number of children from birth to 6 years, living in KwaZulu-Natal (23%). This paints a clear picture of the important role that KZN as a province needs to play in ensuring the implementation of the vision of laying a strong learning foundation for our children.
Improvement in the provision of access to Grade R as 2017 statistics indicated that 74% of Grade one learners had attended Grade R schooling.
We have near-universal access to education for children aged 7-14 years and there are over 2m students in our institutions of higher learning.
By 2019, more than 47 000 learners in 320 schools from across KwaZulu-Natal benefitted the learner transport programme.
In 1994, financial assistance to students was about R70 million. It was R5.9 billion in 2014. In 2018 increased to R15 billion. Last year, it was at approximately R43 billion.
UNICEF argues that by 2015the number of children under five attending an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre or pre-school had increased to one in three from one in ten since 2002. While the numbers have been growing and impressive over the years, the focus has now been on improving quality education, not just access.
To ensure a better start for a better future for South African children, Cabinet approved for the first time in December 2015 December 2015 the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. Led by the National Development of Social Development, the policy was a fulfilment of the Freedom Charter which said, “The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall Be Open”. It was also an implementation of the ANC’s policy conference at the 53 Conference in Mangaung which identified the provision of early childhood development (ECD) as key to South Africa’s success towards achieving the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
SONA 2019 AND THE SHIFT IN ECD PROVISION
Ladies and Gentlemen, we announced in the State of the Province Address last month that by the first of April, Early Childhood Development will migrate from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Education. Our own announcement was in line with the pronouncement made by His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa in the State of the Nation Address in 2019.
Compatriots, you will recall that it was around 2012 that the publication of the National Development Plan (NDP), Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) made a diagnosis of the state of ECD that was not convincing.
A study was then conducted and recommended, among other things, a need to develop a National Integrated Early Childhood Development policy to inform the direction the country ought to take to uphold children's rights to education and access to a comprehensive package of ECD-related services.
Subsequent to this, a policy was passed in 2015 followed by provinces developing their policies. Also, structures were formed pulling together all stakeholders participating in the ECD space to contribute to improved implementation of the policy, report on progress made, challenges experienced and creating solutions to expand access and strengthen quality services in ECD.
This was followed by several research studies on different aspects of the ECD function by the Human Sciences Research Council, universities, public service departments and government agencies such as Statistics South Africa.
Importantly, data generated through these studies provided a clear picture of what was obtaining in the ECD sector at a national level, albeit with limited details on the depth of the issues unfolding at provincial and community levels.
These processes were then followed in 2019 by announcement during the SONA of the decision to locate ECD under the Department of Basic Education.
Coming on the heels of this announcement by the President was a signing of Proclamation relating to the transfer of powers of the ECD function from the Minister of Social Development to the Minister of Basic Education. We also signed our own provincial Proclamation on 18th August 2021 and had it gazetted on 31st August 2021.
The expectation therefore, at a provincial level, was that MECs and their respective departments would take a cue from the contents of this Proclamation by the President and the one we signed as a province.
We wish to pay tribute to the National Department of Social Development and the KZN provincial department of Social Development for the outstanding work they performed and the leadership they provided in the ECD sector. We remain one government focusing on the full development of our people and this shift does not mean that the lessons that we have gained over the years will be thrown out of the window. Far from it, this is our golden opportunity to work together as one government and stakeholders to provide the children of KwaZulu-Natal a flying start to the future.
We will continue working closely with labour to address concerns of workers to ensure that the change is better managed.
Compatriots, you will recall that the promotion of early learning culminated in the ECD 2030 vision, as reflected in the National Development Plan 2030,which moves from a child protection/care emphasis to that of a quality early learning focus.
Through the function shift, DBE seeks to ensure access for all children, efficiency in service delivery, quality play-based learning and equity in providing ECD services to all learners .
Migrating the responsibility of ECD to the DBE will consolidate the continuum of education and allow the DBE to manage the educational journey of young children from their first engagement with play-based programmes up until they finish Grade 12.
Early Childhood Development programmes will be part of the Basic Education system, and will be informed by the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for children from Birth to Four years and the National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for the Foundation Phase .
Compatriots, let me also hasten to indicate that we have embraced this idea from the beginning because we understood that it is aimed at the improvement and development of children and the quality of ECD education, whilst at the same time providing the best support to children from an early age.
MEC Mshengu, who is tasked with the leadership of the Department of Education in this province tells us that he has respected and fully acted on our directive that his department and Social Development should work together towards the realisation of the change in responsibilities for the provision of ECD services.
Amongst major expectations from these two departments was to establish relevant governance structures such as human resources, finance and budgets, legislation and contracts, immovable and movable assets management, communication and stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation, data and information as well as ECD programme implementation. Ultimately, the two departments had to work towards the establishment of work streams to ensure a seamless transfer of the functions.
Since we are all aware that the migration of the function will officially be effective from the 1st of April, we thought it would be important that we create this platform for education stakeholders to share views on key challenges that are facing the Early Childhood Development sector.
It is also our view that through this platform, we will collectively have an opportunity to engage on the current state of ECD in the province whilst also reflecting on the preparation of the children of KZN to respond to the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) which is now taking centre stage.
One thing that we also know for a fact is that whilst the provincial Department of Education under the leadership of MEC Mshengu has done a sterling job, but this process cannot be without challenges.
It is therefore through a platform like this that we thought we would be able to collectively identify and agree on key challenges and interventions to overcome them so that we are able to augment the ECD sector.
The knowledge that our province - KwaZulu-Natal - is home to the second largest population of 0 to 4 year-olds after Gauteng is another important factor that led to us appreciating the importance of this ECD Indaba so that we would be able to deal with what and how we should deal with this number of learners coming into a system that already has high numbers.
In 2017 it was also established that in terms of the spatial location of children residences, accounting for 60% (852 000) of KwaZulu-Natal children under 6 years live in rural and farm areas.
These are some of the challenges that we collectively need to grapple with as we try to improve ECD in our province. But we remain optimistic as the Provincial Government that we will all be able to work together in ensuring that we change the face of this very important sector for the better.
CONCLUSION
Finally, ladies and gentlemen, we understand that this programme will require a lot of funding from the fiscus in order for it to be a success. To this end, we are aware that the conditional grant amount of R208 301 544 will be required to fund the 46 413 children in the 1 415 ECD centers that we have. Similarly, the equitable share amount of R327 348 600 to subsidize 95 800 children in 1 965 ECD centers for the 2022/23 financial year will be needed.
We can assure you that we will be monitoring the usage of the funds closely whilst also working together to source more funds – if there is a need - for this function to be fully and diligently implemented by the Department of Education.
At our level, we want to make it abundantly clear that we will support this programme. We will also be working together with all the stakeholders in the quest to improve the ECD sector.
We invite the South African private sector to lend a hand and contribute in building an ECD sector that we can all be proud to bequeath to future generations.
Yesterday during a graduation of no less than 80 learners in Ballito who had been in conflict with the law, we witnessed the power of social compacts and the results that can be achieved when the South African private sector and civil society make a contribution to changing the lives of the young people of KwaZulu-Natal.
Government alone will not succeed in improving the quality of education in the sector and achieving the skills revolution needed for our economy and the 4th Industrial Revolution without business partnering with us.
Let us all pull together in this new and exciting journey of early childhood development in our province.
Together Growing KwaZulu-Natal!
I thank you.