Teachers’ experiences in the implementation of early childhood education curriculum in selected public primary schools in Kitwe district, Zambia.
Date
2022-06-22
Authors
Mate, Sheila
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Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
The introduction of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) curriculum in public primary schools, in Zambia in the year 2014, was occasioned by the need to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and to deal with inequalities created by the provision of ECE mainly by the private sector. Due to lack of ECE trained teachers in public primary schools, the government co-opted primary school teachers into implementation of the ECE curriculum. This study sought to explore the varied experiences which these teachers experienced in the process of implementing the curriculum in the selected public primary schools of Kitwe district, Zambia. The objectives of the study were to explore the successes and investigate the key challenges encountered by teachers; and to establish solutions to the challenges experienced by teachers in the implementation of the ECE curriculum in public primary schools of Kitwe District. These objectives were achieved through an interpretive phenomenological research design. A sample of 12 teachers implementing ECE curriculum was selected purposively. Data was collected through interviews and analysed thematically. All respondents agreed that the introduction of ECE in public primary schools was a good development which had increased access to ECE especially for children from underprivileged families. They also indicated that the ECE programme helped children to attain school readiness. On the other hand, teachers were experiencing several challenges during the implementation of the ECE curriculum in public schools, which among others included insufficient funding, which consequently led to inadequate and poor state of infrastructure, lack of equipment and teaching/learning materials; lack of adequately trained teachers; lack of training for administrators in ECE, which made it difficult for teachers to be effectively monitored, to receive the necessary support and to be fairly appraised; lack of helpers to deal with other children‟s needs, over enrolment in ECE classes; and high rate of absenteeism due to lack of understanding by some parents about the importance of ECE. Some possible measures proposed by respondents to address the challenges included: that government should increase funding to primary schools and if possible allocate direct funding and materials to ECE; deploy more ECE teachers and helpers to public primary schools; involve all stakeholders in the mobilisation of resources; rehabilitate and construct infrastructure to meet the standard requirements and demand; provide equipment and teaching and learning materials; and train primary school administrators in ECE.
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Keywords
Early childhood education--Cross-cultural studies. , Early childhood education programs--Zambia. , Early childhood education curriculum--Zambia.