“Educating all of our children must be one of our most urgent priorities. We all know that education, more than anything else, improves our chances of building better lives.” – Nelson Mandela. A Message for ‘schools for Africa’ campaign, Johannesburg, South Africa, 15 May 2008
A key focus area of the Nelson Mandela Foundation is Early Childhood Development (ECD). In the pursuit of a more just society, the aim of the Foundation’s work on ECD is to increase the number of registered ECD services, especially those that cater for children for disadvantaged families. Registered ECD services have access to a government subsidy of R17 per day per child. This subsidy helps to ensure children get nutritious meals and stimulated to develop and grow. A registered ECD service also means that the service has some quality assurance mechanisms in place related to the educational programme, benefitting the children.
In pursuit of achieving this objective, in 2023 the Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), which outlined the commitment of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in assisting the GDE with the registration of ECD services in Gauteng.
The MOU, which is currently being renewed, provides the province with three ECD registration support interns to assist the GDE in in the processing of registration files. Alongside this, the Foundation has provided coaching support for the various education districts which align with the needs of the GDE in order to enhance registration of ECD services in Gauteng. Since the inception of this MOU, the Foundation has been able to process the registration of just over 700 ECD services in Gauteng, reaching approximately 51 000 children. Out of the 700 registrations, 386 of these have been new registrations while the remainder were registration renewals. This is significant as the province was unable to manage these registrations in the aftermath of the ECD function shift from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education.
With the National Department of Basic Education embarking on a new massification registration Drive, the Nelson Mandela Foundation is continuing to provide assistance and support to the province in relation to this new initiative. The Foundation looks forward to strengthening the relationship with the province with the aim of leaving no child behind.