Perspectives of Headteachers, Teachers, Parents and Caregivers about Early Childhood Education Program in Punjab: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This study was aimed to investigate the perspectives of headteachers, teachers, caregivers, and parents about the prevailing Early Childhood Education (ECE) program in public schools of Punjab. Participants of the study were selected through a convenient sampling technique. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 headteachers, 6 teachers, 3 caregivers, and 3 parents. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the collected data. All data related to eighteen participants were coded. Clustering similar codes helped in identifying sub-categories from data. Several assertions were developed by comparing and contrasting various categories and sub-categories. The findings of this research highlighted the missing facilities of ECE in public schools i.e. separate ECE rooms, trained ECE teachers, absence of caregivers, unavailability of a separate budget for ECE, provision of ECE kit, well-equipped playgrounds, reluctant behavior of teachers as well as parents dissatisfaction with teachers’ performance. The results of the study are useful for policymakers, administration of the Quaid-e-Azam Academy for Educational Development (QAED) to develop the program.

PDKT: Introducing numbers 1-10 for kindergarten students using card media, does It improve?

“…This is in line with research articles. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that using number cards as media can improve children's ability to recognize number symbols 1-10, which is in line with research (Franchett et al, 2019;Saima Malik et al, 2021). They revealed that playing dominoes can improve the ability to recognize numbers for children aged 4-5 years.…”