Early Childhood Education Services in Manzini Region in Eswatini: Equality and Accessibility

Abstract

Education services are meant for developing the cognitive capacities of all individuals, though this may vary with individuals given their variable genetic make-up. Early childhood education is one way in which children are developed for the future. This study sought to establish how early childhood education services were valued, made available and accessible to children in a developing country. Open-ended interviews and observations were the instruments used for data collection. Thematic analysis was the data analysis method used in this study. The findings of the study revealed that there were benefits in preschool education and that those learners who missed early childhood education were slow and took long to grasp concepts. The study also found that in the Kingdom of Eswatini not all children of early childhood going age go to school due to limited finances, poverty and sicknesses. The study concluded that privately-owned early childhood development centres are expensive and most parents could not afford the fees. The study recommended that the ministry should consider ECE and start funding preschool education and also provide a documented curriculum to ensure that children who attended preschool get the required skill as expected. The Ministry of Education needs to provide for ECE if they have to achieve their goal of providing equal and quality education to all Eswatini children. The ministry should be prepared to build more preschools, to at least see each primary school having a preschool owned by the government linked to it