Quality Assurance in Early Childhood Development in South Africa: Affordances and Challenges

Abstract In low- and middle-income countries, children from birth to 5 continue to be enrolled in informal, unregistered programmes. They face persistent vulnerabilities in care and learning due to structural and systemic inequalities. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, Early Childhood Development (ECD) in South Africa has been positioned as a lever for transformation, seeking social justice and addressing inequalities through a rights-based approach. Despite progressive policies, access and quality remain a concern. In light of the development of a national quality assurance framework, this article examined the affordances and challenges associated with quality assurance, using a qualitative approach with 15 participants. A triadic theoretical lens of affordance, policy implementation and agency theories provided analytical purchase to make sense of lived experiences at the frontline. Data was produced through individual, paired and focus group interviews. The findings identified significant strengths, including valuing of holistic policy intentions, an emphasis on child development, and encouragement of practitioner-led improvement initiatives. However, systemic barriers frustrated these efforts: a fragmented governance structure, top-down compliance mechanisms disconnected from realities on the ground, complicated registration processes, dysfunctional municipal support, insufficient specialised training and the persistence of school-oriented curricula. A call is made for context-specific quality assurance through a district-based model that is multi-sectoral, equity-focused and anchored in municipality reforms, which includes a range of support to shift quality assurance from compliance to transformative practice.