The new strategy projects the need for 115,000 new early learning venues for 2.9 million 3-5-year-olds by 2030, but it acknowledges that these children must be reached now in community-based centres, informal playgroups and the homes of day mothers.

The Department of Basic Education's new strategy for early learning displays the type of thinking that could get us out of the inequality trap. This human-capital-wasting trap is well known: over half of our children are not ready to learn by the time they start school.

They begin at a disadvantage and fall further and further behind. Ultimately, about 40% of learners drop out of school before completing Grade 12, joining the ranks of the millions of unemployed who in turn cannot afford to send their own children to preschools.

The department's new strategy projects the need for 115,000 new early learning venues for 2.9 million 3-5-year-olds by 2030, but it acknowledges that we cannot wait for new buildings, and these children must be reached now in community-based centres, informal playgroups and homes of day mothers.

Until better facilities are in place, we must extend access to quality early learning in every setting where children are being cared for.

Implicit in this new approach is recognition of the role of the informal sector in growing the social economy. Not only can children learn in informal settings, but emergent early childhood development (ECD) practitioners can be upskilled and...