Unattainable and untenable: Hearings expose problems in the early childhood development sector for early childhood development reform, ECD advocates said during oral hearings on the Children’s Amendment Bill. The hearings started on Tuesday with a session on proposed ECD-related amendments to the Act. Stakeholders, including principals, organisations, lawyers and academics, were consistent in their pleas for holistic legislative and regulatory reform after decades of the sector struggling with untenable registration and compliance requirements. Speaking to the organisation Ilifa Labantwana in November last year, Margaret Xhanyiwe Mathe, an ECD provider in Kraaifontein, described registration and compliance as “very complicated”, involving “too many government departments” and “unfair”.