Pre-school Policies and Programmes in low-income countries

Abstract

Many countries in Africa have responded to a widespread demand for pre-school provision and have established expensive college based initial teacher training courses to professionalise staff and upgrade the standards of pre-school education. Government policies generally emphasise community responsibility for pre-school education and recognize the potential of pre-schools for community development as well as promoting children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. Yet pressure from parents in both rural and urban communities is for early entry into education for their children and despite broadly based curriculum guidelines, the emphasis in most pre-schools is on an academic curriculum geared to preparing children for primary school. Pre-schools are generally characterised by lack of liaison with other services, by professional barriers to the involvement of parents, parental opposition to para-professionals and to a community based curriculum, and sometimes barriers also to the use of children’s mother tongues.