Call to extend relief fund deadline for early childhood development centres
By Sisonke Mlamla
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Cape Town - Civil society organisations have requested an extension by another week on the deadline for the applications by early childhood development (ECD) centres for Covid-19 relief funds.
Colleen Daniels-Horswell, of the C-19 People s Coalition s ECD and Basic Education Working Group, said the proposed ECD stimulus package was going to miss the mark as it must be paid out in a few weeks, before the financial year end on March 31. He is asking for the application deadline to be pushed to March 5.
Last week, several centres and the Western Cape Department of Social Development called on the national Social Development minister to extend the deadline for applications, saying the first deadline of 11:59pm February 19 was unrealistic. It was then extended to February 26.
âââ 12:07 Sat, 20 Feb 2021 Image: isasa.org
The Department of Social Development has extended Fridayâs deadline for the application of the COVID-related Early Childhood Development or ECD Employment Stimulus Relief Fund to the 26th of February.
So far, the department has received just over 16 000 applications with more than 74 500 early childhood development employees registered.
The extension for applications comes after the COVID-19 Peopleâs Coalition for Early Childhood Development and the Basic Education Working Group called on government to extend the deadline and to remove all bureaucratic challenges.
ECD employees have experienced difficulties in applying for the funding.
Social Manager for Early Childhood Development, Mpho Papale, says ECD employees have experienced difficulties in applying for the funding.
Deadline for ECD relief fund applications extended news24.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from news24.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The ECD sector is calling for an extension for applications for relief funding.
The ECD Stimulus Relief Fund makes R496 million available to assist ECD facilities affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the application process is not user friendly, leading to delays, the industry has argued.
Organisations in the early childhood development (ECD) sector are calling on the government to extend the deadline for applications to the ECD Stimulus Relief Fund.
The deadline for applications is Friday and the process opened on 5 February. Payments are expected to be finalised before the end of the financial year on 31 March.
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The R496-million fund aims to assist ECD facilities, including crèches, day care services and nurseries, that were hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
C-19 Coalition lobbies for extension of relief funding for early childhood centres – The Citizen citizen.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from citizen.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.