‘Get a swing for children” is what Gauteng education authorities told Abigail Gavin, centre manager at Little Learners Creche in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, earlier this month.

Gavin’s creche is housed in a five-room house and is among the 98%  “functional” early childhood development (ECD) centres listed on the Department of Basic Education (DBE) database compiled during the national census in 2021. In total, 42,420 ECD centres were recorded.

Gavin told Daily Maverick that the officials were on site on 4 August to monitor conditions at the creche as part of the government’s efforts to integrate ECD centres – specifically their Grade R pupils – into the public education system.

Hers was registered with the provincial education department in 2021. It caters for 45 children, but only 32 are enrolled for grades R and RR combined.

Gavin’s employees include three teachers, a cook and a gardener.

“They were satisfied with what we have but recommended that we get a swing. They even checked our menu and what we were cooking. We also display our menu at the front for parents to see,” Gavin said.

Bela Bill

The move to integrate ECD centres forms part of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (Bela).

The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education deliberated on the Bela draft report last week. One of the report’s recommendations was that Grade R should be compulsory in public schools.

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According to another report tabled by DBE officials before the committee on 6 June, President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a proclamation in 2022 for Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to take over responsibilities spelled out in two chapters of the Children’s Act from the Department of Social Development. They are: Chapter 5 dealing with partial-care facilities, their registration and funding; and Chapter 6 defining what ECD programmes should entail.

Officials said at the time that there were separate norms and standards for both chapters, which applied to centre-based ECD provisions. “The Children’s Act is not suited to support the service delivery model of the basic education sector,” the report read, stating that the act was created with Social Development’s role in mind and was undermining progress made towards the DBE’s priorities for access to ECDs.

The report said the short-term legislative reform for ECD was needed to address the defects of the act to enable the DBE to make faster progress towards its ECD goals.

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A redrafted Children’s Amendment Bill has been completed after the previous one was found to be not fit for purpose, and the Office of the Chief State Law Adviser has recommended that public consultation for it be repeated. The next stage, the report stated, was Motshekga’s approval for gazetting it for public comment.

It would be possible for the new bill to be tabled in Parliament after next year’s general elections and for it to be enacted in 2025.

In the meantime, the report said the DBE was delivering its ECD priorities and social justice principles through the 2023 amendment bill by streamlining registration and funding systems into the regulations to ensure poor children benefit.

Other achieved interventions included eliminating wasteful and duplicative processes. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.