A Study of Parents' Perceptions about Early Childhood Education and Development in the Pakistani Context

Abstract

Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) is an emergingfield focusing on a child's holistic development and learning. The role ofadults, particularly parents, are very significant in ECED. The main aimof this study was to explore the perception of parents about ECED in termsof how early enrolment in ECED provides benefits to the children. Further,this study also identified the development and learning of children inECED programs, the time and equal opportunity that children get, and thelikeness and happiness of children in ECED setups. This research wasbased on a quantitative study. A survey questionnaire was used to find theperception of randomly selected 100 parents. SPSS was used to analyzethe data by finding Frequencies, Percentages, Mean and Standarddeviation. The results portrayed that most parents have a favorable opinionabout ECED and parents endorsed the benefits that provide ECED to thechildren. Parents also indicated family involvement in the learning ofchildren. Further, ECED helped develop the values and morals of thechildren. Parents also shared that children got sufficient time and equalopportunity for play and acknowledged children's likeness to attend theECED.