Transfer of early childhood development portfolio to basic education department underway

The transfer comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during his State of the Nation Address in 2019 that Early Childhood Development should migrate from department of social development to that of basic education.

PRETORIA, March 17 (ANA) – South Africa’s government has briefed parliament on the ongoing process to migrate the early childhood development (ECD) portfolio from the department of social development to that of basic education.

In a statement, the two departments said the joint briefing to the relevant Parliament committees on Tuesday was a follow-on from President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s announcement of the migration during his State of the Nation Address in 2019.

The aim behind the move is to improve the quality of ECD education and provide the best support to children from an early age.

The departments of basic education and social development said they had been working towards the realisation of the change in responsibilities.

“To this end, the two departments have established relevant governance structures namely; human resources; finance and budgets; legislation and contracts; immovable and movable assets; communication and stakeholder engagement; monitoring and evaluation, data and information as well as ECD programme implementation,” they said.

“These work streams are to ensure a seamless transfer of the functions and will be meeting regularly to provide feedback to the ministers.”

The migration of the ECD portfolio is set for April 2022.

The two departments said members of Parliament had welcomed the briefing and requested, amongst other things, that a workshop session be convened to allow for a more in-depth discussion on matters related to ECD policy and programme issues.

Both departments pledged to work together to ensure that there would not be any interruption to service delivery during the transition process.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa