EC children crash through Covid-19 cracks

Early childhood development (ECD) centres in the Eastern Cape have been left out in the cold with not a single cent being provided by the department of social development through more than 100 days of lockdown.

The lack of support may see a total collapse of that part of the ECD sector  which services poor and disadvantaged communities.

Thousands of children attend an estimated 1,800 centres in the province.

Some centre supervisors who spoke to the DispatchLIVE say they may now never be in a position to reopen after lockdown as they have been unable to pay staff, ECD practitioners or rental on their ECD sites.

Both the National Development Plan (NDP) and the National ECD policy of 2015 commit to ensuring that every child in SA has access to the full range of ECD services by 2030.

But despite being identified as a national priority, some believe the provincial government’s neglect of the ECD sector during the pandemic has sent it into a downward spiral from which it is unlikely to recover any time soon.

All  ECD centres  spoken to by DispatchIVE are recognised and registered, and have service level agreements (SLAs) in place with the department.

Some centres indicated that even if they can survive until they are allowed to reopen, they could never afford to put in place all the Covid-19 safety and other requirements set out in regulations — unless the department steps up to the plate to assist them.

Staff at centres say the department’s communication has been appalling, while practitioners say they were promised food parcels back in April, but not even these materialised.

They say the social development department has indicated that ECD centres may, at some point, get the administration portion of their stipends — which is less than one-third of their normal stipend.

But not even this has been paid.

Some ECD practitioners said that had they been paid their subsidies, they could at least have provided some form of nutrition and some stimulation material to their little pupils stuck at home through lockdown.

The meals that these children receive at their schools are often their main source of nutrition   and the closure of the ECD centres without any support from the department is likely to contribute to malnutrition, say some supervisors.

Nomfundo Gongqa, who runs an ECD site with 45 children and five staff — including qualified ECD practitioners — in Xolani in Makhanda, is simultaneously furious and desperate.

“This is killing this centre. It is killing my staff. It is killing me and the children. Not one cent for almost four months. How can we survive? The parents that have to go back to work are asking me when I will open. I have no answer because the department won’t communicate.”

Many of that centre’s children who under normal circumstances stay there from 7am to 5pm are provided with three to four small meals a day.

“Where is the trust from the government? We told them we would continue to pay for nutrition and take food to the children whose parents were earning nothing in lockdown. We have not been able to help much at all.”

Rhodes University community engagement director Di Hornby, who works closely with many of the ECD centres, said the government had missed an opportunity to assist children at risk.

“There may be a low mortality risk for children in terms of Covid-19 but there is now a significant risk from malnutrition and diarrhoea during lockdown. If the government would only trust their registered ECD practitioners and the communities they serve, they could have provided so much during this time.”

Instead they had contributed to the collapse of a sector that was supposed to be a government priority.

Despite being provided with more than three weeks to comment, the department of social development had not responded at the time of writing.

Attempts by DispatchLIVE to elicit comment included questions sent to MEC Siphokazi Lusithi’s spokesperson Lufefe Mkutu on June 25 and again on June 29.

Mkutu on June 29 referred DispatchLIVE to Thembela Toyiya, whom he said was in charge of ECD.

The questions were sent to Toyiya on June 30. Toyiya indicated on July 2 he was ill and not in the office.

The questions were returned to Mkutu, who indicated he would refer them to the person acting in Toyiya’s place. To date no response has been received.

The director of Child Welfare in Makhanda, Woineshet Bischoff, said it was likely Child Welfare would  have to close its Nompumelelo preschool, which had 63 children and four staff.

She said its service level agreement with social development specified the department would pay R17 a child per day.

This amount covers salaries, nutrition, educational stimulation and administration.

She said they had received a circular saying that only the administration portion of this would be paid during lockdown but not even this had materialised.

“How do we pay teachers and staff? We intended to provide support in the form of food and stimulation packages to the children at home. How do we do that with no support?”

She said one private funder had continued to support them and as a result, they had been able to provide some assistance to the centre’s children during lockdown.

“But it is never enough. We could have done much more if we had the support guaranteed in our SLAs.”

She said the Covid-19 requirements for reopening were so onerous and so expensive that the school would likely decide to remain closed until 2021 and then reconsider its future.

In the public interest, most of our coronavirus news isn’t behind our paywall, and is free to read. To support our mission of delivering award-winning, independent local news, subscribe from as little as R45 per month by clicking here.