ECD operators urged to participate in mass registration drive

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Nationally, the department said at least half of all ECD programmes are currently unregistered and are attended by tens of thousands of children.

“This means that more than 20,000 ECD programmes operate outside the regulatory framework and are not part of any formal oversight process, which disproportionately affects ECDs in low-income areas - meaning the poorest children are most likely to miss out on oversight and funding,” the department said.

The DBE’s Bana Pele ECD Mass Registration Drive puts “children first” and is an important initiative to register ECD programmes at scale to ensure every child is receiving quality early learning, development opportunities and a safe and nurturing environment.

The department emphasised that ECD is a critical period in a child’s life that lays the foundation for future learning, behaviour and health.

The goals of the drive are as follows:

• To enable government to have oversight of out-of-home settings where children are cared for.
• To support ECD programmes to comply with legal requirements.
• To ensure that more ECDs can apply for the subsidy for children from low-income households.
• To make registration administration processes quicker and less resource-intensive for officials, ECD practitioners and social service professionals.

The threshold for system-entry is more realistic and attainable to reflect and accommodate the complex, varying and real-life contexts in which ECDs operate in South Africa.

Practitioners receive live support from a contact centre agent to complete their applications on the new and robust Early Childhood Administrative and Reporting System (eCares).

The department said that the team has been working closely with the provinces to align with the new Registration Framework, processes, and goals.

“We are also partnering with other ecosystem stakeholders and NGOs who are supporting the registration drive. We currently live in Gauteng and Free State and will soon roll out into the rest of the provinces.

“Through a joint effort, active engagement and co-creation across the sector, we have, as a result of the drive, received over 3,000 applications and registered 800 new ECDs in the five months since applications opened in June of this year in Gauteng, and we currently have 1,479 applications in review,” the department said.

This impacts 27,114 children and 3,116 staff members.

"To put this in context, since the ECD function shifted from the DSD [Department of Social Development] to the DBE, Gauteng has had a total of 2,380 registered centres, and through the campaign, we have added 30% more registered ECDs to this number," the DBE said.

Nationally, the department said it currently has approximately 18, 000 centres registered, as the drive rolls out across the country, and its target is to have registered 10,000 more ECDs by the end of 2025.

“We will continue to work hard and collaborate with all government, private and NGO stakeholders to ensure we do it right, so our children shine bright,” the department said.