AN EVALUATION STUDY FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Dr. Shahida Mohiuddin Sufi did her B.A (Hons) in Psychology from Karachi University. Did her M.Phil in Education and Specialization in Early Childhood Education from the same University. The topic of her thesis at M Phil level was “Early Childhood Education in Light of the Quran”. She did her Ph.D also in Education. The topic of her thesis was “An Evaluation Study of Early Childhood Education in Pakistan”.

She is Freelance Journalist of Dawn Newspaper. Almost her sixty articles are published in various newspaper and journals. She has served Agha Khan Institute I.T.R.E.B for Pakistan about twenty five years. She has attended and read her research paper in numerous national and international conferences. In 2002 Agha Khan University award her best poster presentation in National Conference of Early Childhood Care and Health Conference.

Currently she is Associate Professor at Foundation University College of Education. She is Coordinator of M.Phil program. She is teaching Educational Research, Educational Philosophy Developing Laboratory School of Young Children with her team at Foundation University.

Pakistan is among those developing countries, where progress in the field of education is quite slow. Early years of learning i.e. three of five years are consumed at home without planned educational activities and children’s potentials are not nurtured in a proper way. The Objectives of this study was two folds:

• To evaluate this early childhood education in Pakistan against a set of predetermined parameters.
• To study the difference in the attitude towards young girls and young boys (3-5 years) in family, school and society.

METHOD

To study covered the institutions of early childhood from urban to rural areas of Pakistan. Fifty teachers, fifty parents and fifty children were interviewed and observed in natural setting. Robert Stake’s Countenance Model was adopted to document and report the findings in qualitative form. The field study was divided in ten sub-studies. With the help of sampled notes, specific portrayals and case studies were developed.

RESULTS

In Pakistan, though most of the Private schools stated with higher aims and objectives, but in most of the cases teaching the children goes on in traditional manner, i.e. from book to black board. The early childhood education programs look after the children’s academic needs and over look their health and psychosocial development. Overall in Private preschools activity based teaching approach was in action. In Government schools there were no concepts of children’s activities and play. Children were doing rote memorization of their lessons. In rural areas parents explicitly express preference for their son’s education as compared to their daughters. From early childhood girls have less chance for play and enjoy the company of the friends. Government school teachers consider early childhood education to prepare for the class One, where as private school teachers have clear concept of preschool education i.e. provide an opportunity to express, socialization, knowing own self and develop the ability of problem solving. In urban preschools of Pakistan, parents are involved in their child’s education. Where as in rural areas, parents are not involved in their children’s education. To involve the community in childhood education is still not conceptualized in our schools. All private schools charge high fees and making it in-accessible for many children. The Government schools have nominal fees but quality education is not available in these schools.

CONCLUSION

The evaluation of early childhood education in Pakistan through this study identified that early childhood education practice correlate with attainable goals. Equal treatment of boys and girls is necessary to remove biases in the society. Parents and teachers partnership is essential to achieve the desired results. Preschool education delivery is inadequate and many children of Pakistan are deprived of preschool.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Early Childhood Education should be part of education development of Pakistan. For this purpose political awareness and commitment should also be developed. Integrated curriculum should be developed to look after the whole development of the children. Inexpensive early hood programs should be developed for rural and urban areas of Pakistan with the Government to support and active community participation.