The 2025 National Budget marks a significant shift towards prioritising children’s welfare, with a historic R10 billion allocation to early childhood development (ECD) programmes that could prove to be a turning point for the sector.
This allocation is a pivotal step towards implementing a children’s budget and achieving universal access to quality ECD by 2030, as outlined in the National Development Plan. The budget allocation will lead to an increase in both ECD subsidy value to R24 per child per day and coverage by 700,000 children, as well as a boost for registration and infrastructure support to ECD programmes.
Despite these advancements, the budget allocation is still not sufficient to cover the full cost of quality ECD programmes, which is estimated to be at least R36 per child per day. Further funding increases are necessary. The 2025 National Budget also failed to adequately address the significant value erosion in the Child Support Grant and the need to introduce a maternal support grant to vulnerable pregnant women.
The proposed VAT hike could disproportionately affect low-income households, and alternative revenue options should be considered as government plans to fully finance and implement the Department of Basic Education’s 2030 Strategy for ECD Programmes.
Read our full analysis and recommendations via the link below.
