The early childhood development sector has an important role to play in the delivery of universal access to quality Grade R learning for young children. However, despite recent mass registration drives for centres and a boost in the early childhood development subsidy, resources and funding remain limited. Theodora Lutuli could be referred to as a generational early childhood development (ECD) practitioner.
Her mother founded her first ECD centre, Khanyisa Nursery, on her property in Nyanga, Cape Town, in 1985. The second, Inkwenkwezi Educare, was established on land behind a neighbourhood church in 1997. Today, Lutuli runs both.
She keeps a photo of her mother in her office at Inkwenkwezi, where about 100 children between the ages of three and five attend each year. The centres are conditionally registered, meaning they receive the per-pupil ECD subsidy while they are on their way to meeting the requirements for full registration. Across the Western Cape, about 22% of Grade R pupils attend registered ECD centres like Lutuli’s, with the other 78% at public schools, according to Unathi Booi, spokesperson for the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
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Nationally, the numbers are a bit more uncertain, but a presentation by Parliament’s standing committee on appropriations in November 2024 stated that the implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act might require the integration of more than 200,000 Grade Rs who fell outside the education system. The ECD sector has an important role to play in the delivery of universal access to quality Grade R for young children, according to experts. However, despite recent mass registration drives for centres and the allocation of R10-billion for the ECD subsidy in the 2025 Budget – which meant the per-child allocation increased from R17 to R24 per day – resources and funding remain limited.
“[The ECD sector] is crucial, particularly for the most excluded children,” explained Grace Matlhape, CEO of SmartStart, a social franchise built around a network of licensed ECD practitioners. “There’s a powerful opportunity in the public-private partnerships with existing ECD centres, supporting them… with greater intentionality around education outcomes for children, around all of the things that will reassure the nation that the quality being provided there is good… The evidence we have is that there’s good quality being provided even in those informal environments.” Lutuli emphasised the importance of equalising the provision of resources for ECD- and school-based Grade R pupils.
While she acknowledged that independent early learning practitioners were not employed by the state, she said it was important to meet children where they were. “Basic education does not start from Grade 1. And if you are talking of securing… the economy of the country, we need to make sure that our investment starts at [early childhood development] because then there are no dropouts along the way. The children are ready,” she said.
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