BY LEULSEGED WORKU
Preschool is a place where the future engineers, teachers, doctors, leaders and politicians are made. For this reason, countries are seen giving special attention to preprimary schools with the target to produce the next generation.
As a country that aspires to bring a radical economic, social and political change, Ethiopia has also given special attention to the sector.
Lately, scholars have discussed the limitations of preschool teachers and ways to fill the gaps.
According to Ethiopian School Readiness Initiative Executive Director, Menelik Desta (PhD), most preschool teachers consider their position as a bridge towards their next career instead of giving all their knowledge and time to the children they are assigned to nurture.
Absence of books in mother tongue languages in early school is also a challenge for quality education in the early period. If children are provided with a chance to learn with books that are written in their mother tongue, they would have a better chance of understanding what they are learning, and they would be able to preserve the value systems of their community. Minilik said that, whenever books are prepared for little children, they should include the sociocultural values of that particular society. If not, they will be confused in their future academic life and in their social interaction as well.
Quality education which is given to children at the early stage by considering their local culture and mother tongue has a crucial value in shaping their mind. Learning and teaching process is not all about rehearsing numbers and composing words. Quality education is equipping children with the necessary basic knowledge and nurturing morally responsible citizens who value the sociocultural practices of the country. What is more, quality education is creating conducive environment for little children at preschool stage to search for knowledge by their own ways; not always in a regular teaching and learning process.
Parental engagement is the other area where Ethiopian School Readiness Initiative is advising to bring about quality education at preschool period. According to Minilik, the more there is parental engagement in preschools, the more the country will have “quality students” and responsible citizens.
Active engagement of parents includes creating favorable environment for their children to have healthy relationships at home as well as in the school. For instance, students who came from conflicting parents tend to be unfocussed in their education. This, in turn, will have an adverse effect on their result and future academic life. In this regard, having a healthy relationship between parents and children has a direct impact on the quality of education.
Parental engagement in school also has a positive result on the academic performances of little children. Parents’ engagement in school can be explained in the form of developing a sense of ownership to the school. Whenever parents develop a positive attachment with the school where their children are pursuing their education, they will directly or indirectly produce industrious citizens that care for themselves as well as for their country.
According to scholars, improving the quality of pre-school teachers is the base for sustainable development. As it was indicated by Menelik, preschool teachers` enrollment process is the other area of challenge towards poor performance of children in early schools. Most of the time, pre-school teachers consider their position as a transitional place till they get their diploma or degree. For that reason, they are more theoretical than practical. Absence of on job training to pre-school teachers and educators, poor perception of their position are also the other challenges.
Seconding the view of Menelik, Early Child Care Education Center Lecturer at Addis Ababa University, Prof. Belay Tefera, said that preschool teachers education needs due attention in Ethiopia. According to him, quality early childhood education is not only vital for the sake of children or their parents; it also has a vital role for the future of the nation.
He said, whenever we talk about quality education at an early stage, we are talking about quality pre-primary teachers who give their time and interest for the sake of those little children. In this regard, preschool training should be government’s and other stakeholders’ priority area.
According to Prof. Belay, proper investigation of the curriculum, candidate behavior, the pedagogy training, provision of mental health services to students, attitude and the commitment of teachers and others should be considered in this regard. In most cases, there is a tendency of minimizing the role of pre-school education and educators at preschool level. For this and other reasons, preschool teachers have poor perception towards their responsibilities which in turn affects the academic performance of students in their future academic life.
Concerning the curriculum, Prof. Belay, said that preschool teaching needs to be more practical than theoretical knowledge. In this regard, preschool teachers’ training should be more focused on practical knowledge than theoretical knowledge that has no value to children in preschool. He also said that the curriculum should also give emphasis to local value systems. It should not be a direct replica of the others` or it should not be a hybrid system. What is more, according to the scholars, the curriculum should also pay special attention to psychology, mental health issues, child care, nutrition and play-based-learning and teaching process.
As a means to bring a radical change, researchers have suggested that teachers` tendency towards their profession should be interest based rather than considering it as a mere career to earn their daily bread. Their competence and interest should get due attention. As the saying goes “It takes a big heart to shape little minds”, preschool teachers and parents have a dual responsibility in shaping the future of little children. As a means to overcome the aforementioned challenges, active involvements of all stakeholders and parents in the teaching and learning process are vital in filling the gaps witnessed in the preschools and shaping the future engineers, doctors, teachers and politicians of the nation.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 25 DECEMBER 2022
