The Nelson Mandela Foundation has called on government to include Early Childhood Development (ECD) operators in the R500-billion Covid-19 relief plan.
The said the absence of this support will result in massive closures of these operators, which will have dire consequences for the ECD workforce, the children who attend these programmes and the caregivers who rely on them to enable their participation in the labour market.
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A new report, The Plight of the ECD Workforce, has found that 68 per cent of ECD operators, including playgroups, day mothers and early learning programmes are worried that they will not be able to reopen after the lockdown.
Ninety-nine per cent of ECD’s in the report stated that parents had stopped paying fees after the nationwide closures on March 18.
The programmes primarily serve poor and vulnerable communities whose household incomes have been severely constrained by the crisis.
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As a result, 83 per cent of operators have not been able to pay full staff salaries and 96 per cent reported that their income was not enough to cover their operating costs.
The report was issued by BRIDGE, Ilifa Labantwana, the National ECD Alliance (NECDA), the Nelson Mandela Foundation, SmartStart and the South African Congress for Early Childhood Development (SACECD).
The report is based on a survey of 3 952 ECD operators conducted in mid-April 2020.
It is estimated that as many as 30 000 ECD operators serving poor communities in South Africa run the risk of closure as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
This means that up to 175 000 people will be left unemployed and 1.5 million children without early learning services or a safe place for day care.
In turn their caregivers will be unable to participate in the labour market which is critical for economic recovery.
While the Department of Social Development financially supports a subset of ECD operators that are registered, this support only reaches around 30 per cent of ECD operators.
The foundation commended the President’s commitment to ensuring that women and the most vulnerable in our society are supported.
“The operators most at risk of closure are situated in our poorest communities and providing an essential early learning service and safe day care to the most vulnerable children in South Africa.
“Therefore, these ECD operators must be specifically targeted for support in the Covid-19 economic and social relief plan,” said Leonard Saul, the chief executive officer of the South African Congress for ECD.
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Most ECD programmes operate in a semi-informal manner.
The report found only 45 per cent were registered with SARS, 13 per cent of which were registered as companies (CIPC), and only 35 per cent of their workforce was registered for UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund), with most salaries below minimum wage.
As a result of straddling the informal economy, ECD operators and their workforce thus find themselves unable to access many of the relief schemes currently on offer.
The report proposes two options for how the state can support the ECD sector during this time:
• Support to the ECD workforce
The report proposes that 118,000 to 175,000 ECD workers at risk for losing income each receive R1 000 a month in income supplementation for a six month period.
• Support to ECD operators
Alternatively, the report proposes that 20 000 to 30 000 ECD operators each receive R6 000 a month for a six-month period.
As a result:
• 20 000 to 30 000 ECD providers will continue operating.
• 118 000 to 175 00 ECD jobs will be sustained.
• One million to 1.5 million children will have an ECD programme to attend.
• One million to 1.5 million caregivers, primarily poor women, will have childcare available to them to look for income opportunities.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken decisive and fast action to respond to the spread of the Covid-19 virus and has been applauded both locally and internationally for his leadership,” said Sumaya Hendricks from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“We urge him to now extend this action to the people working in the ECD sector who face extraordinary hardship in the months to come.
“Their role in ECD forms part of the foundation of our education system, the well-being of tomorrow’s workforce, and South Africa’s joint prosperity in the future.”
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