The North West province will be expanding access to Early Child Development(ECD) Centres to children in rural areas in order to reach 29,6 % of children between 0 - 4 years who do not have no access to the ECD programmes.

This pronouncement on the extension of the primary service to improve quality of EDC Centres was made by Premier Thandi Modise in her State of the Province Address delivered in the provincial legislature on Friday.

Premier Modise reported that of the 404 347 children between the ages 0 -4, only 26,4 percent of the children who are supposed to be at ECD Centres have access to the programme.

To address this challenge, Modise said that the partnership that the Department of Education had established with the National Development Agency will be strengthened with the involvement of the Department of Social Development and Ilifa Labantwana (a national ECD programme) to expand ECD centres to rural areas.

Modise also highlighted that the ECD subsidy has been increased from R12.00 to R15.00 per child per day and support was also provided to ECD practitioners through the development of the ECD capacity building plan and training on regulatory framework.

Nutrition programmes are also used as a value-added measure for growth and wellness of children.