scholarly journals Fostering equitable access to quality preschool education in India: challenges and opportunities

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nirmala Rao ◽  
Namita Ranganathan ◽  
Ravneet Kaur ◽  
Rashi Mukhopadhayay
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Equitable Access ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
National Quality ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
National Educational Policy ◽  
Education In India

AbstractThis paper focuses on the provision of center-based preschool education for children ranging in age from 3 to 6 years in India. It estimates access rates to various services and highlights issues related to equitable access to preschool services and the quality of preschool education. While India has made great strides in improving access to preschool education, numerous challenges have to be addressed to enhance its quality. The National Educational Policy 2020 and the country’s commitment to meet UN Sustainable Development Goal Target 4.2 by 2030 and ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality pre-primary education provide opportunities to ensure equitable access to quality preschool education. Central to meeting national targets is the enforcement of the National Quality Standards for Early Childhood Care and Education. Further, increased budget allocations to preschool education, prioritizing professional preparation of the early childhood work force and harnessing technology to monitor government programs have considerable potential to enhance the early childhood system.

Local community involvement in Malaysian early childhood care and education centers

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-157
Author(s):  
Bahbibi Rahmatullah ◽  
Sopia Md Yassin ◽  
Jamilah Omar
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
National Quality

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the role and the involvement of local community within the context of Malaysian early childhood centers (nursery and kindergarten).Design/methodology/approachThe research used a mixed method with a questionnaire survey in the first phase and qualitative interviews in the second phase. Quantitative data were obtained from a survey completed by 3,519 staffs from nursery and kindergarten all over Malaysia. Qualitative data were collected from individual and focus group semistructured interviews conducted with 140 participants of the Malaysian public and private internal and external stakeholders ranging from the relevant personnel of the early childhood care and education (ECCE) centers (administrators, teachers and practitioners), academic experts, regulatory agencies and parents.FindingsSurvey results indicate that the parents and community involvement with ECCE centers from the perspective of the management and practitioners is in the medium category. A total of three overarching themes were identified from the interviews, namely expertise collaboration, resource sharing and operation monitoring. There exists diversity in terms of community engagement and cooperation with ECCE centers.Practical implicationsThe findings are expected to provide valuable guidelines to ECCE centers' management and leadership in the aspect of community involvement where it could help to enhance their efforts of providing quality learning experiences for young children attending their centers.Originality/valueThis study is part of a larger longitudinal and mixed methods project examining the quality practices in setting the standards in the Malaysian National Quality ECCE framework. These findings contribute to the understanding of community involvement with ECCE centers in the Malaysian context.

scholarly journals PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PRESCHOOLS OF JIGJIGA CITY ADMINISTRATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
Yigzaw Haile ◽  
Abdirahman Mohammed
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Preschool Teachers ◽  
Developmentally Appropriate ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Mixed Design ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
City Administration ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Age Appropriate

The main purpose of this study was to assess practices and challenges of preschool education in Jijiga City administration. Mixed design was employed (both quantitative and qualitative) for this study. 19 preschool centres (6 public and 13 private preschools) were randomly selected for the study. 51 preschool teachers (12 teachers from public and 39 teachers from private teacher) were selected.  A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data in which 57 items were filled by preschool teachers which are dealing with Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) practices. Interview, FGD, observation and document analysis were used to triangulate the data collected using questionnaire. Percentage and thematic analysis were used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data respectively. The main findings revealed that preschool practices in all sampled preschools were found to be below standard, unable to use local stories since teachers were not from the community and knowledge of parents, teachers and principals towards contribution of the preschool was found to be limited. It was found that 82.4% of the preschool had no early childhood care and education qualification, and 70.6% of the preschool teachers did not agreed that all sampled preschools had inadequate classroom space, 64.7% of the preschool centres did not have age appropriate chairs. Similarly, 76.5 % of the preschool had no any out-door playing material and 100 % of all preschool did not used approved curriculum and lack of appropriate teaching used in most of the preschool were some of the main finding.  The Ethiopia Somali Regional Education Bureau is recommended to address shortage of trained ECCE teachers, develop standardized ECCE curriculum, applying developmentally appropriate content, materials, and teaching methods, use locally and culturally appropriate materials and assign teachers who can speak the local language of the community.

scholarly journals Investigation of the Evaluation Techniques in Early Childhood Education: A Comparative Research in the Greek School

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Maria Sakellariou ◽  
Polyxeni Mitsi ◽  
Panagiota Strati
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Alternative Evaluation ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Authentic Evaluation ◽  
The University ◽  
Evaluation Techniques

The evaluation of the pedagogical process in early childhood care and education is an up-to-date and controversial subject of study in the context of scientific and policy choices and actions (Charisis, 2006; Doliopoulou & Gourgiotou, 2008;·McAfee, Leong, Bodrova, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evaluation techniques applied in preschool education by the teachers and prospective teachers in kindergartens, who are also the sample of our research, in the region of Epirus and at the University of Ioannina. In our research we used the structured questionnaire with closed and some clarifying open-ended questions. The data of the research highlighted the prospective teachers’ more positive attitude to apply alternative evaluation techniques to kindergarten but ultimately the difficulty in their practical implementation. Despite the limitations of the research, the data is the trigger for further exploration of the subject of teacher education and the reform of the curriculum in the pedagogical departments of Preschool Education of the Greek Universities in order to divest the kindergarten from the promotional character and the authentic evaluation to ensure the children’s development by themselves.

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