Early Childhood Development programmes are no longer required to have NPO status to apply for the state subsidy. This was announced by the Department of Basic Education in January 2023.
9,100 programmes, serving more than 190,000 poor children that were not registered as NPOs, were identified in the 2021 ECD census. If each programme was subsidised, it would mean a 25% increase in the number of children benefiting from the subsidy.
Being a predominantly women-led sector, ECD centres play a key role in the employment of women, which further embeds this need for them to be able to access funding.
This announcement was met with delight by non-NPO ECD centres in the sector, who can now apply for much-needed funding from the government, which could help toward their holistic business development.
A key area where funding help is needed is to aid in the provision of nutritious meals, to help prevent further stunting amongst our young children.
This also means that anyone starting an ECD centre now has a choice as to how they initially set up their ECD centre with CIPC, being able to now bypass the required cumbersome and rigorous red tape that opening and running an NPO requires.
This announcement will encourage more ECD centres to open and hopefully help ensure that more children in disadvantaged areas in South Africa will be able to access funded ECD centres near their homes.
For a sector that is in much need of quality provision and growth, this is a coup.
ENDS.
