Providing the best early education and care for society’s youngest children raises a complex set of issues, but all are solvable by harnessing the intelligence and thoughts of the wider community, former prime minister Julia Gillard says.
Gillard has opened the first public hearings in South Australia’s Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care.
The inquiry was a key promise of the incoming Labor state government last year, along with a pledge to deliver universal preschool by 2026, provide better access to out-of-school hours care and increase workforce participation through improved access to childcare.
Ms Gillard told the commission on Wednesday that the science and understanding of brain development were increasingly prompting societies to examine what could be done to provide children with the best possible start in life….