ECD forms and contacts for North West
The North West Department of Education publishes NO ECD registration or subsidy forms online — I checked its ECD page, its dedicated Forms page, its Document Repository, its National and Provincial Policies pages, and ran its own site search for ECD, Early Childhood, subsidy, creche and partial care; the only ECD artefact on the whole domain is a 5-page 2021 joint DSD/NWDoE FAQ brochure about the function shift, which contains no forms, no procedure and no contacts. The province's Forms page (?page_id=363) lists 13 forms — leave, Z83, Funza Lushaka, home education, independent schools, transfers — and not one relates to ECD, partial care, Form 11/16/29/30, GL Form 1, Annexures, or the quarterly subsidy returns. A North West crèche owner must therefore register through the national DBE Bana Pele / eCares channel (online portal, verified live) and obtain Form 11 from a district or Social Development office in person, because no North West office publishes a downloadable copy; the only blank Form 11 I could actually open is an NGO mirror. One caution for anyone repeating this research: the "Approved ECD Partial Care Facility Registration Process" SOP on the national ecdsd.gov.za domain loads fine (200, 11 pages) but its cover page is Province of the Eastern Cape, Social Development, approved 29 September 2016 — it is not a North West document and predates the function shift, so I excluded it.
Every link on this page was opened and checked on 2026-08-31.
Government sites move things without notice, so if one has broken since, tell us on WhatsApp and we will fix it the same day. Always confirm the current version with your district office before you submit.
Forms you can download for North West
These are published by North West Department of Education or by a national government source that applies here.
| Form | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Learner Registration — Circular No 6 of 2026, Learner Registration for 2027
Circular No 6 of 2026 |
Current provincial circular (579 KB) on registering learners into public schools for the 2027 school year, linked from https://education.nwpg.gov.za/?page_id=2899. It covers admission of children into schooling — relevant to a crèche only insofar as it governs Grade R intake at public schools and the documents parents must supply. It is NOT an ECD centre registration or subsidy document. |
| FORM 11 — Application for the Registration / Conditional Registration / Renewal of Registration / Reinstatement of a Partial Care Facility
Form 11 |
NGO MIRROR (Centre for Early Childhood Development, cecd.org.za) — not a government domain. I downloaded and rendered page 1 to confirm: it is the genuine blank Form 11, issued under Regulation 14, Section 81 of the Children's Act 38 of 2005, 4 pages, with the tick-box list covering a crèche (birth to 3 years), educare centre, after-school centre, private hostel, temporary respite care and place of care for children with disabilities. This is the ONLY blank Form 11 I could actually open anywhere; no North West or national government site publishes a downloadable copy. Treat it as a preview so you can prepare your answers, then collect and submit the official copy issued by the district or Social Development office. |
| Frequently Asked Questions — Early Childhood Development (ECD) Function Shift | 5-page scanned brochure co-branded North West Dept of Social Development + North West Dept of Education, 2021 (1.0 MB). Explains what the function shift is, what the Proclamation does to Chapters 5 and 6 of the Children's Act, and describes the ECD Census and ECD Quality Assessment. I rendered and read pages 1 and 5: it names no forms, gives no registration procedure and publishes no phone number or office address. Useful only for understanding why registration moved from Social Development to Education. |
| Independent Schools Registration Form | Listed under that exact label on the NWDoE Forms page; loads as a 6.35 MB PDF. I verified it downloads but did not read its interior, so I cannot describe its fields. Flagged here ONLY as a warning: it is the sole facility-registration form on the North West site and is for independent schools under the South African Schools Act. It is NOT the ECD / partial care registration form. Do not submit it for a crèche. |
| Bana Pele ECD Registration Drive — Contact Us | 1-page poster PDF (802 KB) from the DBE. I rendered and read it: its entire content is the Bana Pele branding and the enquiry address banapele@dbe.gov.za plus a link back to the DBE website. It does NOT contain a provincial ECD contact list — I checked specifically for a North West contact and there is none. |
The national route, which works in every province
Registration now runs through the DBE's Bana Pele drive and the eCares system, whichever province you are in. Registration is free — nobody should be charging you for it.
- eCares registration portal (DBE) — create an account and lodge the application
- Bana Pele registration drive (DBE) — the process, the documents needed, and the current provincial rollout
- eCares resource hub — guides for applying, fixing a rejected application, and linking an already-registered centre
- Call centre 0800 202 933 · banapele@dbe.gov.za
Other North West pages worth having open
- Register ECD partial care facilities (South African Government services) — National gov.za service page. Names Form 11 and states the service is free, but publishes NO downloadable form and NO North West-specific office. Its instruction is that you apply at your nearest Department of Social Development or municipal office, where Form 11 will be handed to you. Confirms the in-person-only reality for North West.
- eCares ECD user registration portal (dbecares.gov.za) — The live national online application portal linked from the DBE Bana Pele page. This is where the APPLY stage is actually submitted. Verified it loads and serves HTML. This replaces the paper-first route for a North West owner and is the only working online application channel I could confirm.
- ECD — Early Childhood Development (North West Department of Education) — The province's only ECD landing page. Pure narrative about the 2025 national ECD priorities, the mass registration drive, the National Curriculum Framework and the National Parenting Programme. Contains NO forms, no registration steps, no subsidy procedure and no ECD contact details. Its only two outbound links are the ecdinfohub.org NGO site and the 2021 function-shift FAQ PDF below. Read it for context, do not expect paperwork.
- Forms (North West Department of Education) — The department's official Forms page — this is where provincial ECD forms would live if they existed. It holds exactly 13 downloadable forms: employee transfer, home education registration, independent schools registration, Z83, Funza Lushaka bursary, teacher recruitment screening, school self-evaluation, school improvement plan, exam assistant (2020 and 2021), certification application, EDNW2 teacher application and Z1a leave. NOTHING for ECD, partial care, crèche registration, Form 11/16/29/30, GL Form 1, Annexures, or subsidy returns. Worth citing so owners stop hunting here.
- Bana Pele ECD Registration Drive (Department of Basic Education) — National DBE hub page and the practical starting point for a North West owner, since the province publishes nothing. Sets out the three-stage process — APPLY (online form or WhatsApp Bot, get a Bronze certificate), COMPLY (submit remaining documents, receive site visits), COMPLETE (Silver or Gold certificate) — and states registration is free. Carries resource links for Required Registration Documents, ECD Norms and Standards, FAQs and NGO support.
- Required Registration Documents (Bana Pele infographic) — A 2160x2160 JPEG image (1.39 MB), not a PDF or form — it is the checklist graphic of documents needed for the ECD registration drive, published under the label 'Required Registration documents' on the DBE Bana Pele page. Save it as an image; it will not print as a form.
Who to phone in North West
For most owners this section is worth more than any PDF. These are published by the department itself.
| Who | Details |
|---|---|
| NWDoE head office / Office of the MEC — physical and postal address, Mahikeng/Mmabatho | 2nd Floor, Garona Building, Mmabatho, North West Province. Postal: Private Bag X2044, Mmabatho, 2735 |
| NWDoE head office switchboard — General Enquiries (best first call for ECD, since no ECD directorate line is published) | 018 388 2127 / 018 388 2128 |
| NWDoE general email address | nweducation@nwed.gov.za |
| Office of the MEC (Dr. Desbo Mohono), telephone | 071 383 0444 |
| District Director — Ngaka Modiri Molema district (Mahikeng / Zeerust / Lichtenburg area) | Mr. Daliwonga Ntlabati, 082 882 5158 |
| District Director — Bojanala district (Rustenburg / Brits area) | Dr. Motsei Paledi, 084 962 5370 |
| District Director — Dr. Kenneth Kaunda district (Klerksdorp / Potchefstroom area) | Mr. Benny Monale, 083 675 1353 |
| District Director — Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district (Vryburg / Taung area) | Ms. Mojakhumo Dithejane, 072 616 4368 |
| Head of the provincial district-directors team (escalation point above district level) | Ms. Pauline Mokhule, 082 921 6547 |
| NWDoE departmental spokesperson (media / public enquiries) | Elias Malindi, 072 115 4855 / 072 892 8399, EMalindi@nwpg.gov.za |
| National Bana Pele / eCares ECD registration drive enquiries (DBE) | banapele@dbe.gov.za |
| DBE national call centre and head office (fallback when the province does not respond) | Call Centre 0800 202 933, callcentre@dbe.gov.za; Switchboard 012 357 3000; 222 Struben Street, Pretoria |
| NWDoE Districts page — names the four education districts and the towns they cover, but publishes NO office addresses or landlines (noted so nobody expects contact details here) | Ngaka Modiri Molema (Mahikeng/Zeerust/Lichtenburg); Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati (Vryburg/Taung); Dr. Kenneth Kaunda (Klerksdorp/Potchefstroom); Bojanala (Rustenburg/Brits) |
Registration is free. If somebody offers to register your centre for a fee, they are selling you something the state gives away. Use the call centre number above instead.
Once you are registered, the paperwork does not stop.
The subsidy is kept by the quarterly returns, not the registration certificate. Zande builds them from the attendance you already mark and the costs you already record.
Get started free →