From time to time there is a new law that has the potential to bend the arc of SA’s social and economic development. The Children’s Amendment Bill is such a law.

That the bill contains measures to reform the regulatory framework for early childhood development programmes may seem irrelevant to many people. The early childhood development sector is widely seen as the narrow concern of those with young children, who need a preschool or childminder to take care of their child while they work. The wider role and ramifications of early childhood development programmes at the levels of child, family, community and society are not well understood...