South Africa’s Educare Centres Need Government Support and Funding for Teachers
A teacher guides young children through classroom activities. The letter to the editor calls for greater support for community-based educare centres and the teachers who make early education possible.
I think it is well known to all that the state of education in South Africa is rather abysmal. Especially, the poor communities are not receiving a proper education.
I am involved with an educare, and from my experience with the organisation, I can testify to how difficult it is not only to run an educare but even to get it started. It is extremely difficult due to the following reasons.
The government requirements are prohibitive for any community-based educare startup. Not only is it impossible to fulfil the requirements from a practical perspective, but it is impossible from a financial perspective. Practically, it is impossible because the requirements are based on first-world standards which cannot be met by a third-world reality. Financially, it is impossible due to the immense costs that have to be incurred to be able to fulfil the requirements.
Furthermore, the government offers no assistance at all. It merely comes with a checklist to see if one complies.
Hence, township residents cannot start educare centres legally. This means there are hardly any educare centres because the government is not providing any.
Another immense hurdle is funding. Even if an educare centre has managed to get registered, it is very difficult to get sufficient funding. The educare centre cannot generate income from fees if it is serving the poorest of the poor, as they obviously cannot pay fees that can fund an educare centre.
Therefore, an educare centre is dependent on receiving funds from the government and donors. The government does not provide adequate funding. Hence, an educare requires additional funding from the private sector. Even the donations from well-meaning individuals are insufficient. What an educare requires is funding from companies.
But here is the difficulty. Most companies do not wish to fund salaries. And for an educare, whose entire programme depends entirely on its teachers, funding for teacher salaries is essential. No funds for salaries means no teachers. No teachers means no educare centres. No educare centres means millions of children do not receive an education.
The Educare sector requires two important shifts in the consciousness of society:
- Government must make all efforts to assist educare centres in their startup and registration process.
- Donors need to fund teacher salaries. Donors need to recognise that by supporting an educare centre meaningfully, teacher salaries need to be funded. You can fund the property, you can fund the food, but it will be an empty educare centre if there is no teacher due to the lack of funds for salaries.
So, this is our heartfelt appeal to society as a whole. Support the teachers: they are the ones who educate our children, a most vital role in society.
