Parents’ perception on pre-primary education for 3-4 years old children

Abstract

The importance of preschool education in children’s development and learning is incomparable. It trains children for future learning experience and supports them to reach their full potential. Parents play a huge role in children’s early development. Parents’ perception towards early childhood education is very important for effective and successful programs. This study aims at exploring parents’ perception regarding preschool education. This study can draw attention and raise awareness to the necessity and current scenario of the pre-primary education through exploring parents’ perception on preschool education. This study was a qualitative study. It used in-depth interview and focus group discussion of the parents in Dhaka as data collection method. The study revealed parents’ opinion, views, expectations and believe about pre-primary education system of Bangladesh which can be helpful for providing quality education to preschoolers. The study indicates that parents perceive pre-primary curriculum should be activity and play based. The research further reveals that parents find both indoor and outdoor facilities to be important for children’s holistic development but most preschools lack outdoor facilities. The study recommends providing standardized play-based curriculum for all preschool children. Another recommendation suggested by this study is allocating outdoor space for children’s physical activity. Lastly, further research needs to be carried out on a larger scale to see a nationwide perspective.