Abstract:

This paper seeks to examine the perceptions of parents about the role and relevance of ECCE and how as parents are involved in ECCE centres. The South African government has made a commitment through its ECCE policy and supporting frameworks to provide access to quality ECCE services to young children from birth to four years. The Eastern Cape Province is one of the South African provinces with a majority of young children below five years coming from impoverished backgrounds with limited access to ECCE opportunities. Over the years, the care and education of young children has moved away from home-based to centre-based and many parents have relegated the responsibility of early education solely to ECCE practitioners. The move from home-based to centre-based does not diminish the importance of parents’ roles and their involvement in ECCE centres. However, up to today, the role of parents and their involvement in ECCE centre still prevail. Despite this, parental responsibilities and engagement in ECCE centre remain critical to their children’s cognitive development and socio-emotional well-being. It is against this background that this study explored parents’ perspectives on the role and relevance of ECCE and their involvement in ECCE centres, was carried out in the four districts across the Eastern Cape. This study adopted Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory which purports that children’s development is influenced and enhanced by interconnected supportive relationships in various levels of environmental systems, which contribute towards nurturing children’s early developmental learning experiences. The theoretical framework was employed as a lens to view how parents perceive the role, the relevance and, their involvement in ECCE across the various the eco-systemic layers.

The study adopted a qualitative subjective approach to understand the perspectives through the lived experiences of parents. Through purposive sampling, 63 parents in 37 ECCE centres located in rural and township contexts within four Municipal Districts in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa were selected as research participants and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The results show that, for parents who have a role to play in the ECCE centre’s governing body, felt a sense of purpose and involved in the decision-making process. In addition, parents indicated that they were valued, while those who are not in the governing body structure indicated that they were never involved in the ECCE centre. The parents who are no members of the governing body felt that their role and contribution to the ECCE centre is relegated to being able to afford their children’s fees. The research participants also mentioned that in ECCE centres, parents’ meetings appear to be the only strategy used to engage parents. This paper recommends the empowerment of ECCE practitioners in establishing and maintaining the partnerships with parents. In addition, the ECCE programmes need to embrace the role of parents with training of ECCE management in ECCE programmes. Training for parents to include mindfulness programmes and activities which boost parent’s appreciation of the relevance of ECCE.

Keywords:

Cognitive development, Early Childhood Care and Education, Centre-based centre, ECCE centres, Home-based centre, Parental involvement, Practitioners, Professionalise, Socio-emotional, Well-being.