Programme director
Representatives from ABSA
Representatives from Sowetan
Representatives from the Congress of South African Early Childhood Development
Representatives from the South African Broadcastiong Corporation (SABC)
Ladies and gentlemen
It is a great honour to be in your midst at this important occasion, which happens to be my first public engagement as the Minister of Social Development.
Accordingly, I have accepted the privilege bestowed on me by President Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress (ANC) to serve the people of South Africa, conscious of both the plight and expectations of many poor South Africans.
We have started a journey to deliver on these expectations, inspired by the massive vote of confidence which places an obligation on our government to deliver quality services in a quest to address underdevelopment and poverty.
Equally, we began a journey to create a caring society for children, encouraged by the words of our struggle icon, Tata Nelson Mandela, when he said, “there can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children”.
The ANC 52nd national conference in Polokwane recognised that children are the future and therefore measures to invest in their development have to be given priority. Our efforts to advance this priority will be channelled towards tackling child poverty and the provision of child protection services.
The Early Childhood Development (ECD) is one of the strategies to tackle child poverty and contributes towards human capital development. South Africa will only defeat the social and economic challenges it faces through consistent investment in education, which begins at the early ages of children’s lives.
Today, it gives me great pleasure that we continue this journey in the spirit of partnership, which I believe will continue to characterise and strengthen our work in the ECD sector.
With education considered the highest priority of our government, we have placed ECD as our apex priority that needs special attention in many facets including resources and skills development.
Beyond that, we are obliged by the Children’s Act to ensure that children live and grow in a nurturing, secure and stable environment.
The act places a responsibility on our department to manage the registration of ECD centres, monitor their functionality and impact, as well as to provide subsidy for needy children in such centres.
It is therefore our priority to ensure that no child is denied the opportunity to access early learning, including orphans and vulnerable children.
We are gathered here to acknowledge that these objectives will not be achieved without the hard work and dedication of the ECD practitioners we are honouring tonight.
It is them who nurture our children on a daily basis and develop them optimally to become upstanding citizens who will participate meaningfully in society.
It is them who crystallise and contextualise education at the foundation phase to promote values among children such as respect and self-confidence, but also to infuse important lessons on nutrition and healthy living, among others.
Their contribution to the growth and development of children is immeasurable. Posterity will remember them as selfless activists and professionals who correctly utilised their passion for education and childhood development to champion the rights of children.
We are indebted to these cadres to ensure that children’s rights are upheld and respected in all corners of our communities, so that they can live in an environment of safety, love, understanding and happiness.
For this reason, I must announce that we will make it our priority to ascertain that all ECD centres operate in line with the Children’s Act. Central to this effort is to remind our people, especially ECD practitioners themselves, that all people who work with children at these centres must be screened.
Our emphasis is that current and potential employees must be checked against the register of people previously convicted for cases relating to child abuse. These employees must be screened to verify and confirm their status for purposes of child protection.
Another key element of our work in this sector will be transformation. We undertake to review the subsidies of poor children in these centres, which currently stand between R12 and R14 per child. Our view is that the subsidy as it stands may be inadequate and we will ensure that the review continues to prioritise vulnerable and orphaned children, including children with disabilities.
As part of this transformation agenda, we will be capacitating service providers in line with government expectations and standards. Another important dimension of this work will focus of developing a coherent curriculum for ECD.
Importantly, we will be visiting these centres throughout the country to monitor and inspect compliance with the legislation and required standards. Our objective is to help strengthen them.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are concerned about the mushrooming of unregistered ECD centres. This is inconsistent with our vision of providing transformed, integrated, accessible and quality partial care and ECD services in partnership with relevant stakeholders.
As custodians of child protection, it is our duty to remind South Africans that no one is allowed to operate a child care centre of six or more children without registering with the Department of Social Development.
We therefore emphasise the need for those that have not yet registered to do so. We are aware that not all centres meet the maximum requirements for registration. The act allows us to conditionally register such centres with the view of strengthening and helping them grow gradually until they meet the maximum requirement standards. I thought it is necessary for us to make this point to assure people that our aim is not to shut down these centres but to strengthen and support them.
Our intention is to mobilise communities, especially in rural areas, to support the establishment, registration and subsidisation of ECD centres and initiatives.
We acknowledge that while progress have been made to increase the number of children who receive ECD services, there is still a greater need and demand for children in rural areas to access such services.
At the same time, we want our people to know and understand the principles of the Children’s Act, which include:
- respecting, protecting, promoting and fulfilling the child’s rights set out in the Bill of Rights
- recognising a child’s need for development and to engage in play and other recreational activities appropriate to the child’s age
- recognising a child’s disability and create an enabling environment to respond to the special needs that the child has
- knowing and understanding that the best interest of the child is always paramount.
Beyond this, we urge all ECD practitioners to familiarise themselves with the key elements of the Children’s Act, which are care, support, protection and development.
Many studies have revealed that primary school completion rates are higher for children who have had access to early development programmes, language development is higher and subsequent repetition rates are lower.
Children must be exposed to this educational environment that nurtures their social, emotional and cognitive skills so that they can become better and productive citizens in the future. We are happy that the participation rate for children aged 4 and 5 (Grade R) in early child development has now reached 70 percent.
After all, it Nelson Mandela was correct to say, “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation”.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Tonight we are honouring excellence and hard work, which in many ways realise the assertion made by former President Mandela.
I have no doubt that from many impoverished communities, our ECD practitioners will help us ensure that “the daughter of a peasant becomes a doctor, and that a son of a mineworker becomes the head of the mine.”
I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners and all the contestants for the magnificent contribution they continue to make in the ECD sector.
Through your collective efforts, we can make South Africa a better place for children to develop and grow in the environment of love, peace and happiness.
I thank you.
