The main challenges facing early childhood development (ECD) practitioners in the Western Cape are funding and infrastructure.

On Tuesday and Wednesday‚ they were invited to give input on government’s draft ECD Policy‚ which was gazetted for public comments in March.

According to a statement by the department of social development‚ it appeared that “there was general consensus on an urgent need for adequate and equitable funding of ECD centres in the country”.

Practitioners want the current government subsidy — which varies between R15 and R27 per child per day across provinces – to be revised upwards as it was insufficient‚ and to “be implemented equitably across the country”.

The department added that there had been a call for the “removal of the means test that determines which children will be subsidised and offering a blanket subsidy for all children”.

The discrepancies between provinces‚ ECD practitioners suggested‚ could be remedied by setting “a central structure… to determine‚ implement‚ coordinate and monitor infrastructure norms and standards across the country”.

This would necessitate “making the national department of social development the authority on ECD infrastructure norms and standards instead of the current ‘fragmented’ system found in local municipalities”.

Failing this‚ the national department would have to work with local authorities “to stabilise norms and standards”.

Currently‚ ECD practitioners said‚ infrastructure norms and standards are not standardised across local authorities‚ and “as a result they find themselves trying to meet varying requirements which‚ at times‚ are in contrast with one another”.

The public consultation process on the ECD Policy is expected to conclude by the end of next month.