More than 1.3 million South African children aged three to five have no early learning programme at all. Closing that gap is, at its core, a question of capital: where public money flows, where private funders step in, and how quickly investment can be scaled.
The second Bana Pele Leadership Summit, under way in Gauteng, is the focal point of that effort. Bana Pele means “children first” in Sesotho, and the campaign is led by the Department of Basic Education to strengthen and transform the delivery of early learning nationwide. The summit brings together government, practitioners, communities, business, funders and civil society to take stock of progress towards a national goal: ensuring that all children between the ages of three and five have access to affordable, equitable and quality early learning programmes by 2030.
The investment case is explicit. Over the past two years, government has substantially increased spending on early learning, raising the subsidy for ECD attendees and committing further resources to expand access. The stated targets are concrete: reach an additional 300 000 children by 2027, and a further 900 000 by 2030. Those numbers signal a deliberate scaling of public expenditure. Officials acknowledge, though, that investment alone is not enough; public resources must reach the programmes and communities where they are needed most.
The economics of exclusion are stark. Most of the 1.3 million unserved children live in poorer communities, where even a low fee at an ECD centre is a challenge for families. Children in better-resourced communities, by contrast, are far more likely to enter the foundation phase able to read for meaning and handle basic numeracy. Expanding access is therefore framed both as a development priority and as a means of addressing historical inequalities in education.
The returns on that spending extend beyond the classroom. Early learning, the government argues, touches education, health, social protection, employment and the economy, and its benefits will be felt most widely across these interconnected areas. It is also a significant part of the care economy. These programmes sustain the livelihoods of the people, mostly women, who run them, while freeing parents and caregivers in communities where employment opportunities are often scarce to work, study or provide for their families. Strengthening early learning is thus an investment in families, local economies and the workforce that sustains care.
Meanwhile, there is a market dimension as well. Government is looking to the private sector to accelerate access, noting that many companies already incorporate education into their Environmental, Social and Governance strategies, but that much of this spending targets basic education rather than early learning specifically. Corporate support, whether by subsidising fees, upgrading facilities or funding practitioner training, is seen as a way to help meet the early learning goals. For companies, the summit represents an invitation to redirect existing ESG budgets towards a segment of the education market that has historically been underfunded.
Formalisation is another pillar of the strategy. Through the Bana Pele Mass Registration Drive, thousands of previously unregistered early learning programmes have taken their first step towards formal registration. The drive is bringing more providers into the national system, giving authorities a clearer picture of where programmes are located and helping identify where further support is needed. For funders and operators alike, registration is a precondition for channelling resources efficiently.
Officials are candid about the timing. The country is starting late in building a formalised early childhood development system, but the message is that starting late should not mean starting slowly. The reforms are positioned as part of a broader effort to renew South Africa’s socio-economic architecture, laying the foundations for stronger schools, healthier communities, more inclusive growth and a more capable workforce for the decades ahead.
The human infrastructure of the sector deserves mention. The President has recounted a visit to an early learning centre in Bizana in the Eastern Cape, where staff kept the centre going even when they could not be paid, and told him they would not turn away a child simply because their family could not afford an already low fee. Across the country, countless practitioners, many of them women who have built small enterprises of their own, show the same dedication. Government has committed to supporting them and ensuring they receive recognition, given their vital role in the future educational outcomes of young learners.
The underlying policy context matters for the investment calculus: Grade R is now compulsory, meaning these foundational skills are needed by the time a child turns five. Quality early learning introduces the building blocks of literacy and numeracy, from recognising letters and numbers to building vocabulary, counting and solving simple problems, so that children are ready to read, write and work with numbers from their first year of school.
Further details on the campaign and its goals are set out by government at https://www.gov.za/blog/our-nation%E2%80%99s-future-begins-early-childhood-development%C2%A0
Advancing early learning, the summit’s organisers argue, is a shared national responsibility, and the effort to support the country’s youngest citizens is framed as a solid investment not only in their future, but in the growth and progress of the country itself. Whether the 2027 and 2030 targets can be met will depend on how quickly public money and private capital move from commitment to delivery.