The implementation of preschool policy at school-based grade R classes of schools in the southern region of Ethiopia

Abstract

While visiting preschools in rural areas of the southern region of Ethiopia, I became aware of the early childhood education (ECE) problems that emanated from ECE policy and its implementation. The problems I observed included that the school building was not well constructed for it had broken doors and windows, unclean and narrow rooms and the school campus had not enough space to allow kids to play freely. In addition, there were no learning materials and playground facilities and teachers did not have qualifications at all. From my subsequent observations that I had made with other preschools in a rural area, I observed the same problems. This situation triggered me to carry out this research. The overall purpose of this study was to establish the nature of ECE policy implementation at school-based Grade R classes of schools in southern Ethiopia. To achieve this aim, I employed the qualitative descriptive design for it helped me to capture and describe in-depth views, perceptions, meanings and practices of ECE policy practitioners. The major theories that informed this study are maturation, learning and interaction theories that promote holistic development of children via ECE programmes. There were 38 purposively selected subjects who participated in the study. The findings of the study revealed that practitioners had a lack of knowledge about policy implementation and did not teach correctly in the classrooms. Teachers taught Grade R with inadequate material resources and support; there was a lack of policy guidelines, standards, common curriculum, teamwork and supervision. Based on the findings, I recommended an interaction model of policy implementation that integrates bottom-up and top-down approaches to promote positive and active interplay between the policy managers at the top and implementers at the local level.