The funding standstill is forcing some ECD principals to take on teaching roles.
Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres across the North West are on the brink of financial meltdown due to the provincial department of education’s alleged failure to process critical stipend and subsidy payments, leaving Grade R teachers unpaid and pupils without food.
Centres say they have not received any funding for this year, and are rapidly losing staff due to the non-payment of salaries, with growing concern that the department will not process payments before year-end.
Claims of depleted departmental funds
Sources in the department claim the department has run out funds and that the ECD funding crisis comes with the backdrop of the department planning to spend about R1 million on a matric results release function in January.
“How can they afford that while failing to pay the stipends? Did they not budget for it? If they did, what happened to the money?” one insider said.
Annah Fourie, chair of the South African Association for Early Childhood Development, warned that dozens of centres may be forced to close.
“From March until now, the practitioners have not been paid for Grade R.
“We are not able to provide for our families, to pay our practitioners, or to sustain our centres. This matter needs urgent attention,” she said.
Problems with enrolment deadlines and headcounts
Fourie said ECD operators were typically given just one week’s notice ahead of the February deadline to submit enrolment forms for Grade R pupils.
ALSO READ: Private sector sees massive profits while over 70% of children attend no-fee schools
However, she said most children only arrive in March, as unemployed parents prioritise food and stationery for school-going siblings.
Even if centres submit on time they are not permitted to update numbers later in the financial year, Fourie said.
ECD headcounting only began in September this year, with some centres, including in Matlosana only visited as late as 22 November, she added.
“They did their work late. Because of that delay, we are still waiting for payments,” said Fourie.
Staffing pressures as centres struggle to operate
Some centres employ independent practitioners to teach Grade R, while others, including principals like herself, have had to step in to keep classes running.
In previous years, Fourie said the first payment was only made in August, a delay now considered “normal practice”.
Fourie added that district officials have yet to sign off final documents, the last requirement before payments are released.
Provincial department of education spokesperson Vuyo Mantshule had not commented at the time of publishing.
NOW READ: WSU SRC warns of ‘corruption, capture’ and student housing mafia
