R12.8 billion boost for Early Childhood Development services to benefit 300 000 children

The early childhood development grant will receive an additional R12.8 billion over the next three years, expanding service to an additional 300,000 children. The National Treasury is set to provide a significant financial boost to Early Childhood Development (ECD), enabling services to reach an additional 300,000 children. The announcement was made by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana during his Budget Speech on Wednesday.

He highlighted that education continues to be the largest area of expenditure, accounting for 23.7% of the consolidated budget over the medium term. “Basic education receives R22.7 billion for carry-through costs announced in May 2025. Early childhood development receives the majority of these funds.

An additional R12.8 billion has been allocated to expand ECD services to another 300,000 children. “R9.9 billion supports employee compensation and other pressures in education. Early childhood development grant receives an additional R12.8 billion over the next three years, expanding service to an additional 300,000 children,” Godongwana said.

[paywall]

“This will also maintain the increased per-child, per-day subsidy of R24 introduced in 2025/26. The increased allocations align the National School Nutrition Programme with food inflation to continue providing meals to over 9.9 million learners in almost 20,000 schools.” The minister explained that Learning and Culture constitutes the largest component of consolidated expenditure by function at 23.7% over the medium term, while economic regulation and infrastructure is the fastest-growing component at 8%. “This function includes basic education, post-school education and training, and sport, arts and culture.

The basic education component receives 68.1% of total allocations. “Provincial education budgets grow by 4.2 % over the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) period.

[/paywall]