Analysis of Quality Education in Franchised Schools at Early Childhood Education Level in Lahore (Punjab)

Author(s) : Asma Alvi, Muhammad Asif & Norman Reid

Abstract:

The Jomtien Conference on Education for All in Thailand (1990) identified many important educational areas needing addressed: language, numeracy, problem solving, basic knowledge, skills, values and attitudes. Early years education can be seen as laying the foundation for later development. The objectives of the research are to explore how Pre-primary teachers understood the nature of quality in early years education and how they saw their own teaching and the external constraints placed on them in relation to quality. 60 head teachers and 180 pre-primary teachers completed questionnaires (franchised schools) in Lahore at Early Childhood Education level. The questionnaires employed multiple formats: semantic differential, situational set format and open questions. Principal components analysis was applied to the questions but only with the semantic differential items was a factor structure observed. This suggested that there were three key aspects to quality as seen by both teachers and head teachers: the place of play and enjoyment unrestricted by imposed curriculum demands; the freedom to develop rich learning experiences without always thinking of the needs of the next stage (primary education); the need to take responsibility and to set their own standards to ensure quality. Statistically significant differences were observed between the response patterns of teachers and head teacher but much related to the greater experience of head teachers.

Key Words: Early Childhood Education, Pre-primary teachers, quality education, factors encouraging quality.