I recently started working at an early childhood development (ECD) nonprofit organisation (NPO) in Knysna, after years of focusing on national advocacy for early learning and related issues.
The challenges facing early childhood development in South Africa are well researched, clearly documented and actively addressed through targeted advocacy, but intellectualised information doesn’t always make the real-life implications hit home.
Through my interaction with staff at ECD programme sites and within our NPO, the penny dropped properly: it’s not just “challenging” – it’s virtually impossible to run a sustainable ECD centre in an informal area in a smallish town like Knysna. That is, unless you’re lucky enough to have access to social capital – the kind often tied to white privilege – that can mobilise networks of people with means to channel funding into the centre.
Let me illustrate. There are 82 ECD sites in the Knysna municipality, reaching about 3,500 children aged 0-6. Eighty-seven percent of these sites serve underprivileged communities, and almost all charge a modest fee of R300-R400 a month. Yet, according to site leaders/principals, most parents struggle to pay in full or at all. A third of the site leaders said there are children in their area not attending preschool because their families can’t afford the fees.
You might not realise when you come to Knysna on holiday, but 63% of people living here fall below the Upper Bound Poverty Line. That’s less than R1,634 per person per month, the minimum needed to cover essential food and non-food items.
While the rising cost of living puts enormous pressure on families, we must also acknowledge that ECD is still not valued as highly as, for example, tertiary education, even though it is arguably the smartest and most cost-effective investment in long-term educational success.
So, when household income is limited, ECD simply doesn’t make it to the top of the priority list.
Making it even harder to collect fees is the reality that these children will soon move on to no-fee public schools. That’s why we increasingly see very young children being placed in school-based Grade R classrooms, where play-based learning – though official policy – is hard to implement. Instead, children often sit behind desks, much like they will be doing in Grade 1.
Alternatives to fees
If ECD centres can’t rely on school fees, what are the alternatives? One opportunity is to ensure that your site registration with the provincial Department of Education is at a silver or gold level (conditional or full registration). This would qualify you to apply for the government ECD subsidy, currently R17 per child per day and set to rise to R24 in September.
But only children who qualify for the Child Support Grant are eligible, leaving a gap, especially when parents are still unable or unwilling to pay fees.
Registration also isn’t easy or cheap. Meeting municipal health and safety standards can require property upgrades: fencing (about R700 per metre), toilets (R2,500-R7,000), proper flooring (R600-R800 per square metre), fire extinguishers, first-aid kits, and other safety features.
Health, safety, and food prep assessments alone cost around R1,500. For gold/full registration, you may also need zoning approval (R3,800-R18,000) and professional building plans (R25,000-R60,000).
Every requirement adds up.
Let’s say you secure silver registration and your subsidy application is approved for 80% of the 25 children enrolled at your centre. That gives you about R10,560 per month. If, optimistically, 70% of parents pay 80% of a R350 monthly fee, you earn another R5,040, bringing your total monthly income to R15,600. Without the subsidy, your income is just R5,040 from school fees.
Now consider your expenses. For 25 children, you’ll need at least one assistant – who may also double as the cook – earning a salary aligned with the minimum wage, which is around R5,000.
Then there’s food. The cost-of-living crisis has deepened food insecurity in South Africa, with 17.5% of households experiencing severe food insecurity, and children cannot learn on an empty stomach. A nutritious meal will cost about R9 per child per day for 25 children, that’s R4,950 per month.
Now you’re already at R9,950 before rent, water, electricity, cleaning supplies or learning materials, which could add another R2,000-R4,000. Even with the subsidy, you’re left with just R1,650-R3,650 before paying yourself or covering emergencies and maintenance.
Yet somehow, in the Knysna municipality alone, we work closely with ECD site leaders, supported by 182 practitioners and 26 assistants, who each month provide early learning to 2,855 children across 67 sites.
Dedication
I hope it’s clear: there is no profit to be made – this work is carried out with sheer dedication, mostly by women, because they care about the children.
This demonstration of resilience, determination and dedication is one of South Africa’s most undervalued economic forces, overlooked by government, despite clear evidence (like the Heckman Equation) that investing in early childhood services offers the highest returns for reducing unemployment and building human capital during the most critical years of a child’s life.
Michelle Lencoe, principal of Lithemba Edu-Care in Sedgefield, describes the moment her centre finally received the government subsidy: “This year, a miracle happened! I didn’t even think it was possible to be independently funded by government, but we did it! It’s a major achievement, even for someone like me who enjoys a challenge and doesn’t shy away from hard work.”
She recalls one of her proudest moments: “A child from our centre started Grade R at a public school in 2024. In the first term, her teacher said she was ‘too clever for Grade R’. By the second term, she was promoted to Grade 1.
That’s the level of excellence I strive for with every child who comes through Lithemba Edu-Care.”
How do these site leaders make it work? They hustle. They compromise. But the price is paid through the quality of learning. In Knysna, over half of ECD practitioners earn less than minimum wage, with 22% earning under R3,000 per month.
It’s no surprise, then, that there are high levels of attrition. Some centres can’t afford to provide food and rely on parents to send lunch – parents whose stretched budgets don’t always allow for the nutrition growing children need to learn.
Many sites operate at a quality level that cannot support strong learning outcomes: in the Knysna municipality, 42% of sites are rated inadequate, and 36% only basic. Some take in more children, including babies and toddlers, just to raise income, but this too compromises quality and increases the need for more practitioners or assistants, a requirement that is often unmet.
Having a local ECD resource and training organisation like ours makes a difference. Through our fundraising, we support some of the most vulnerable sites with a feeding scheme, provide registration support, practitioner training and learning materials. But most towns don’t have that kind of backup.
The 2021 South African ECD Census recorded 42,420 early learning programme sites. Forty-three percent remain unregistered, a figure confirmed again in the 2024 South African Early Childhood Review, meaning they do not receive the government’s ECD subsidy.
More than 1.6 million children are enrolled, their early development resting in the hands of women who perform small miracles every month to keep these sites going, purely because they care.
So, if you’re looking for something to care about in South Africa, find one of these centres and lend your support. It’s inspiring – and it’s one of the few investments guaranteed to change the trajectory of a child’s life.
Someone is already doing the heavy lifting – literally for love and charity. As communities, the least we can do is help lighten the weight. DM