It’s been over a year since the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act was signed into law, making Grade R compulsory for five-year-olds in SA from 2025. However, as a new school year gets under way, questions about the implementation of the legislation remain, from how it’s being funded to who it affects. The implementation in South Africa of a compulsory Grade R year has the potential to boost access to quality education for thousands of children, allowing them to build strong foundations that will serve them throughout their school careers.
However, many questions about the roll-out remain, including how funding, human resources and the role of early childhood development centres tie into the new legislation. Daily Maverick takes a look at some of the pressing worries here. In 2024, the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act was signed into law, amending the South African Schools Act and making Grade R compulsory for five-year-olds from 2025 onwards.
The legislation had been in development for seven years, going through multiple rounds of public participation. Since then, provincial education departments have been ramping up efforts to ensure universal access to Grade R as the first formal year of Foundation-Phase learning in primary schools. It didn’t all start in 2024, though.
Read Full Article on Daily Maverick
[paywall]
As any parent will know, Grade R has been around for a lot longer. The process of introducing it in schools and subsidising registered, community-based early childhood development (ECD) centres that provided it began after the publication of Education White Paper 5 of 2001, which framed Grade R as the first formal year of schooling, according to anEqual Education Law Centrereport from November 2025. While a lot of focus has been placed on the roll-out of compulsory Grade R in public schools, parents can still choose to send their child to a registered private school or an independent, registered ECD centre for this year of learning.
TheNational Norms and Standards for Grade R Fundingrequire provincial education departments to ensure that all community-based early learning centres that receive funding from the state are registered as independent schools. The registration process involves meeting minimum standards relating to governance, infrastructure, curriculum and teacher qualifications, according to the Equal Education Law Centre. However, the reality is that many ECD centres are unregistered and unsubsidised.
Some ECD practitioners have expressed concern that early learning centres are being left behind when it comes to the roll-out of compulsory Grade R due to limited funding. With the school year already under way, parents who have yet to find placements for their five-year-old learners in public schools can approach their nearest provincial education department district office for assistance. If you are unsure of where to go in your area, you can contact your provincial education department.
On 19 January, the Eastern Cape Department of Education stated that its call centre number was temporarily down. For enquiries, members of the public were encouraged to call Ms B Mkaza, assistant director of customer care, on 060 530 3814 or Ms V V Mkona, deputy director for customer care, on 083 324 4308. Heleen Hofmeyr, researcher at the Research on Socio-Economic Policy (Resep) in Stellenbosch University’s Department of Economics, noted that school-level data from across six provinces, presented by the Data Driven Districts Programme, showed that enrolment in Grade R already exceeded 80% before it became compulsory (when looking at the proportion of Grade 1 learners in a public primary school who had attended Grade R in a public primary school).
[/paywall]
