The status of early childhood care and education in northwest Ethiopia: an investigation from quality perspective

The main objective of the study was to investigate the status of early childhood care and education (ECCE) from a quality perspective using concurrent mixed-method research. Participants of this study were 161 teachers and 35 principals (total 196) from government and private preschools and 4 supervisors. A questionnaire, observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions were used to collect the data. Data gathered through questionnaires were analysed quantitatively, while qualitative data analysis was used for data collected through observations, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The quantitative result showed that most preschool teachers have no training in ECCE. The qualitative data confirmed that poor infrastructure; less involvement of parents; unqualified teachers; absence of harmony in curricula between private and government preschools; problems related to hygiene; and poor quality assurance strategies were the major challenges. In conclusion, the status of early childhood care and education in the selected sites is poor. Therefore, capacity-building programmes targeting teachers' training and fulfilment of developmentally appropriate outdoor and indoor facilities are priority areas of intervention.