More children in early learning than ever

South Africa has expanded access to the early childhood development subsidy to over 954,000 children, the most at any time in the country's history, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said.

Two hundred thousand more children reached in two years

The government brought an additional 200,000 children into the ECD subsidy over the past two years, up from 748,000 two years ago to 954,000 currently.

One million children still without access

Around 1.2 million children aged three to five currently access early learning, leaving a gap of about one million children with no ECD programme access at all.

“One million children not accessing any ECD programme is not a statistic we can become comfortable with.”

Subsidy covers 59 percent of enrolled children

As of September 2026, about 1.6 million children under six were enrolled across almost 40,000 registered early learning programmes in South Africa, with ECD subsidy coverage at 59 percent.

Bana Pele 2030 blueprint targets explained

The Department of Basic Education's Bana Pele Shared Blueprint aims to reach an additional 1.2 million children by 2030, improve developmental outcomes, and mobilise resources from public, private and philanthropic partners.

Approval rate doubled in September

By the end of September 2026, 1,343 programmes had received silver or gold approval since the start of the year.

“We have doubled our rate of approvals.”

ECD subsidy budget nearly doubled

The ECD subsidy budget grew from 3.43 billion rand in 2024/25 to 6.49 billion rand in the current financial year, and is projected to reach 9.1 billion rand by 2028/29.

KZN court orders overdue subsidy payments

The KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg issued an order in June 2026 compelling the provincial education department to pay outstanding subsidies after centres faced non-payment over multiple months.

Gwarube calls for better government coordination

Minister Gwarube advocated for greater collaboration across government levels and departments, saying practitioners should not have to travel between agencies to access what they need.

“Here is a checklist. This is what you need to do. How can we help you?”

Multi-departmental effort recognised at summit

The Bana Pele Leadership Summit on 19 October 2026 brought together the Department of Basic Education, Health, Cogta, and the South African Local Government Association to discuss holistic ECD services.

ECD coordinator praises inter-ministerial approach

Tshepo Mantjé from the Equality Collective said the summit showed the importance of all government departments working together, as ECD includes nutrition, learning, safeguarding, health and responsive caregiving.

Practitioners express hope for easier registration

Paballo Langa from Little Stars Daycare Centre in Soweto said government efforts to work hand in hand with ECD centres to make registration easier gave her hope and support for the work ahead.

“There's a lot of hope and I like that when working with Bana Pele, they give us a time frame.”

Registration effort reaches all municipalities

All eight metros and 44 district municipalities are now part of the ECD registration effort, reaching South Africa's full network of 257 municipalities across all nine provinces, with over 75 NGOs supporting.

Ramaphosa calls for business investment in ECD

President Cyril Ramaphosa said technology cannot replace fundamental skills like reading, writing and thinking, and called on businesses to invest in early learning infrastructure, practitioner training and subsidised access.

“I would like to see early childhood development become a central part of corporate social investment and broader economic development strategies.”

Mantjé warns of top-down implementation risks

ECD coordinator Tshepo Mantjé said he remained cautious about practitioner participation, warning that much work is happening top-down and a movement needs grassroots input to succeed.

“My fear is that much of this work is happening from the top down, and a movement needs to be informed by what's happening at the grassroots for it to be successful.”