The Explorer Islamabad: Journal of Social Sciences ISSN: 2411-0132(E), 2411-5487(P) Vol-2, Issue (2):46-48 www.theexplorerpak.org
PERCEPTION OF PARENTS ABOUT EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Sajida Iqbal Department of Anthropology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi Corresponding Author: Sajida Iqbal PMS-Agriculture University Rawalpindi sajidarajput@hotmail.com Abstract: Early childhood development and education deals with physical care and education of young children from birth to eight years of age. These early years are very much important to learn and absorb more information than later. Brain develops and grows rapidly during these years. In Pakistan the term Early Childhood Education is generally understood as pre-primary education. The objective of this research is to understand the perception of parents about the appropriate age of child at time of admission in pre-primary level and the importance of Early Childhood Education. A quantitative study is conducted in different areas of Islamabad with 21 respondents using snow ball technique. The results shows that age of 3 to 4 years is suitable age to take admission and majority accept the importance of early childhood education.
Key Words: Early Childhood Education, Pre-primary Education, learning, cognitive development INTRODUCTION Early childhood development and education basically deals with physical care and education of young children from birth to eight years of age. It is regarded as a recent development in most of Asian countries (Fagbeminiyi 2010). The importance and value of education in early years of life have been acknowledged for more than 2000 years. The early education system in the United States grew substantially as emerging need due to fundamental changes in family life during the second half of twentieth century. These changes include raising living cost, increased number of dual income families, an increased in single parent family, increased number of teenage parent and decrease in the impact of extended family. This allowed the majority of American children to have access to some form of early childhood education. The ECE can be grouped by the age of children. It is grouped from birth to eight years which include ‘infants, toddlers, preschooler, kindergartners and children in the primary grades (Essa 2007). Number of studies revealed that learning starts from the mother womb (Rohani 2010) and parents can help their baby’s natural cognitive development by interacting with baby by talking, singing and reading story books. These early years are most important to learn and absorb more information than later on. The brain develops and grows rapidly during these years. Better environment and trained teachers give
everlasting results in child development. Generally ECE covered personal, social, and emotional development, communication, general knowledge, numeracy, play and physical development (Curtis and O'Hagan 2003). A number of theorists argued that play has a crucial role in children learning like Fredrich Frobel, Herbret Spencer, Karl Groos and G.Stanlly Hall. Sigmund Freud wrote that ‘every child at play behaves like an imaginative writer, in that he…creates a world of his own or, more truly, he arranges the things of this world and orders it in a new way that pleases him better’. Play enables children to express themselves completely, without reservation or reprisal, because children at play feel safe. Usually Children use toys and other materials to express their feelings and ideas, which they are unable to verbalize’ (Curtis and O'Haga 2003). Another group of theorists emphasized on cognitive development and learning. The term Cognitive development is described in a medical dictionary by Farlex as ‘the development of intelligence, conscious thought and problem solving ability that begins in infancy’. In encyclopedia of children’s health it is defined as ‘the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decisionmaking, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood’.
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The name of Jean Piaget is more important among them. He believes that ‘child constructs his own understanding about the world’ (Curtis and O'Hagan 2003). Children learn about the world through their senses and perceptions. Researcher have shown that senses help babies to develop ideas about themselves and the world at very early age and gradually they link these early ideas with present experiences. Piaget gives the name of ‘schemas’ to these early concepts or ideas. Another researcher, Athey, carried out a research from 1972 to 1977 to investigate the use of these schemas in children learning. She describes the schema as a pattern of repeatable and generalizable actions. (Curtis and O'Hagan 2003). Piaget outlined the stages of cognitive development including ‘the sensorimotor, preoperational, operational and formal operational periods that are so well known in early childhood education’ (Edward 2009). Parents play key roles in early childhood education. They believe in the significance of education and they expect the best for children and try to keep children happy in school environment. Parents play an important role to deal with the problems faced by children in early years of school. Their interest in children education and emotional support helps children to learn. On the other hand when parents pressurize or control children extracurricular activities they lose their interest in education and do not enjoy the activities. Children at their early age need encouragement to develop positive attitude. Different studies prove that early childhood education enhance literacy skills, ability to learn and improve ability to communicate with others. Good ECE increases cognitive abilities, educational achievements, classroom behavior, and decrease grade repetition among children. In Pakistan, Education Conference 1947 recognized the importance of Nursery class as an integral part of mainstream education but till 1950s it was hardly introduced at school level. Till 1980s the educational policy specifically for ECE was not developed. In 1992 Katchi classes were formally recognized in national educational policy with “high priority and as support service for working women belonging to poorer sections”. Early childhood education is an international slogan replacing our traditional Katchi class.
Government of Pakistan accepts the importance of ECE but still a lot has to do at policy level. In 2000 the Government of Pakistan has signed the Education For All (EFA) Declaration in 2000 at Dakar Conference with commitment to achieve six goals of EFA. One of these is “expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education” (EFA 2004). Generally, In Pakistan, Early Childhood Education means Pre-Primary level which consists of one year and some part of grade one syllabus being taught at this level. In public schools the minimum age limit for class prep is four year. It is totally free of cost. According to 25 (A), The Constitution of Pakistan, “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age five to sixteen years, in such a manner as may be determined by law” (The Constitution of Pakistan 1973). On the other hand private schools have more established system of ECE. The minimum age limit for preprimary level is of three years and it consists of three years. Every school has its own syllabus for each class of preprimary level. Each private school has its own fee structure. MATERIALS AND METHODS Considering the practice of two deferent models of ECE in, a descriptive research was conducted to know the general perceptions of parents about the suitable age to get admission in preprimary level, importance of preprimary level and reasons for not choosing government schools. The data was collected from twenty parents (mother/father) whose children were enrolled in preprimary level in different private schools, living in different areas of Islamabad. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In Pakistan early childhood education is considered as pre-primary education. Regarding the appropriate age limit to take admission in preprimary level falls between three and four years. A consensus found between three and four years with the percentage of 38.1 each. Government of Pakistan has also set the age policy of 3-5 for admission in preprimary level. But regarding length of preprimary level, majority is in the favor of two years (Table.1.1) while according to National Education Policy ‘at least one year preprimary education shall be provided by the state.
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4th Edition, Annotated Students Edition. Thomson Nelson.
Table. 1: Length of Preprimary level
No. of Years Percentage One Year 28.6 Two Years 38.1 Three Years 33.3 Majority has understood the importance of ECE or preprimary education considering it as an opportunity of socialization, to get familiar with school environment, opportunity of learning and play at safe environment. Respondents gave different reasons to not to opt the government schools but most common reason was low standard of education. (Table 1.2) Table.2: Reasons for do not opt Govt. Schools
Reasons Percentage Low standard of Education 61.9 Long distance 9.5 Age limit 4.8 Low infrastructure 4.8 Low level of care 4.8 Over-crowded classes 4.8 Urdu medium of education 4.8 Unfriendly environment 4.8 Positive results found regarding school environment and teaching methodology. 85% parents reported that their children feel happy to go to school. 90.5 % parents said that children get homework but only 76.2% parents reported that their children willingly do their homework. Considering the importance of play in education at this level 71.4 % parents told that extracurricular activities are regularly included in their school schedule. REFERENCES Curtis, Audrey, and Maureen O'Hagan 2003 Care and Education in Early Childhood: A Student's Guide to Theory and Practice. Routledge. Edward, Susan 2009 Early Childhood Education and Care; A Socio-cultural Approach. New South Wales, Pademelon Press. Essa, Eva L. 2007
EFA 2004 Early Childhood Regional Capacity-Building Initiative http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/k now_sharing/flagship_initiatives/early_ch ildhood.shtml Fagbeminiyi, Fasina F. 2011 The Role of Parents in Early Childhood Education: A Case Study of Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. Global Journal of Human Social Science11(2). Rohani, Cyrus 2010 Early Childhood Education. Journal of College Teaching & Learning 7(1): 13-16. The Constitution of Pakistan. 1973 The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan http://www.na.gov.pk/uploads/documen ts/1333523681_951.pdf Publication Date: Feb-29 -2016 © 2016 “The Explorer Islamabad” Journal of Social Sciences-Pakistan
Introduction to Early Childhood,
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