![]() “Do you see? We are struggling as ECD centres, especially the ones in the township,” says Hloka, as she sits in her kitchen, which also serves as her workspace. There’s no way we can raise our fees higher than that to afford the fees because some work in retail stores.” Hloka recalls that the principals at the open week raised their hands and voices in disapproval, telling government officials: “We cannot afford it because, firstly, you are not funding us. “It’s because that’s when most of the parents are going to work … and there’s nobody to take care of the child,” she says. Her ECD centre operates from 6am to 6pm, five days a week. She also cannot afford to pay anyone overtime. The R2,000 a month Hloka pays her practitioners is in contravention of these laws. At the Early Childhood Development Week, she found out that the department of employment and labour has stipulated a required minimum wage for employees. Hloka recently attended the ECD open week, hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni at the Alberton Civic Centre. She earns what is left after everyone on her staff is paid and all the necessary supplies are purchased for the centre. “The money doesn’t allow me to get paid.” The money from the children’s monthly fees goes to paying for food, rent, three practitioners and a person who prepares food. Her centre has a regular intake of 45 children. ![]() ![]() Hloka charges R450 a month for baby classes, which cater to children aged from six months to three years, and R370 a month for her four- to six-year-olds. Hloka points out that her ECD centre runs on the absolute bare minimum, with nothing to spare for training or to pay qualified staff. Though the formalisation of the sector will help keep the most vulnerable members of society safe in regulated environments, ECD owners and practitioners feel the measures are not realistic. Hlongwane says that funding for subsidies for ECD centres is dependent on the availability of money. This means employing trained personnel who can offer appropriate learning activities, communication strategies and basic therapeutic interventions for such children. The operation and appointment of practitioners and staff within ECD services is guided by the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, which, along with specific guidelines for health and safety on ECD centre premises, outline how centres must identify and manage children with disabilities. Hlongwane says any person intending to establish an ECD centre has to contact the nearest municipal office to apply for a health certificate and a permit to operate. I don’t have any funding of any sort at the crèche.” “But now they have come up with this new law that you have to have a certificate,” she says. In 2015, the centre registered for business with the department of social development.Īt the time, Hloka was able to get nutritional assistance for her centre because of a letter which she received from a social worker after the centre had been inspected. It is run from a rented premises, for which she pays R3,500 a month. Hloka is principal of New Hope, an ECD centre in Ehlanzeni, a suburb of Tembisa. He also adds that the “employment of unqualified ECD practitioners, the non-implementation of approved ECD programmes and the non-observation of safety and care of children” contributed to this situation. Thabiso Hlongwane, spokesperson for the office of the MEC of Gauteng’s department of social development, says the imposed regulation and registration is to help manage “non-compliance and mushrooming of unregistered ECDs” and to avoid “fatalities at partial-care facilities”. Though formalising the sector is good for accountability and oversight, for many ECD centre owners and practitioners, the financial implications to becoming part of the government’s database of official centres are too great.īut the tragic case of the nine-month-old baby who died last month at an ECD centre in Edleen, Kempton Park, shows these regulations are very necessary. Trained staff must tend to children with disabilities or chronic illnesses who need appropriate access and care at the centre. Owners need to make sure the children are kept in safe, hygienic environments with access to clean food and water. Government has implemented new laws to formalise Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in South Africa, under which all ECD facilities must be registered with the provincial government. "I think our problem especially with government … more concerned implementing the laws than checking the reality of what is going on ,” says Georginah Hloka, 29, the principal of an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre in Tembisa. For many Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre owners and practitioners, the financial implications to becoming part of the government’s database of official centres are too great.
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