Early childhood development centres are struggling to keep up
“We are also unable to improve our facilities as required by the Department of Social Development and as a results most of the centres in the area end up not being registered because of the red tape."
Kwatsaduza – KwaThema and Langaville ECD Association has reached an agreement to standardise fees for all early childhood development centres registered to the association.
The agreement was reached on Wednesday after a meeting with all the centres.
During the meeting, the centres raised some of the challenges they face daily in carrying out their functions in their centres.
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Early learning practitioner Mahlodi Mtiya said they are barely breaking even and at times work at a loss because of the demands and red
tape they come across in the industry.
“The challenges include affording our learners a proper diet, which is recommended by the Department of Social Development.
“Sometimes we are forced to give the children the same food throughout the day because we cannot afford other food items.
“We are unable to buy the stimulating educational material or retain practitioners at our facilities because of low wages.
“We are also unable to improve our facilities as required by the Department of Social Development and as a results most of the centres in the area end up not being registered because of the red tape.
“We recently had a visit from the Department of Labour, demanding the practitioners be paid R20 an hour, which we cannot afford,” she explains.
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Mahlodi added that as a result they have agreed to increase the fees so they would be able to run fully functional centres.
“We are urging parents to come on board and assist us in making the environment in which their children are learning constructive,” she says.
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