Abstract:

Upholding quality learning in early childhood and education (ECE) sites is the dream of any ECE specialist. This is because this stage of learning requires serious care and a formidable foundation to ensure the holistic social and cognitive development of the learners. However, the literature is scarce on how early childhood development sites in the South African context comply with government regulations. This research, therefore, explored the perspective of practitioners on the level of compliance with government regulations. Using a mixed methods research approach and a convergent mixed methods research design, the population of this research comprised all the practitioners in all the ECD sites in the Free State Province of South Africa. A sample of 172 practitioners was sampled from this population using a proportionate stratified random sampling technique. In this case, the practitioners were stratified based on the organisations that manage their ECD sites. Necessary data for the study were collected using an observational checklist, a structured questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guide. These instruments helped the researchers gather appropriate quantitative and qualitative research data. Before the commencement of the data collection, the researchers obtained ethical clearance approval from the Committee on Research Ethics of the University of the Free State and the Department of Education for both the pilot testing and the main fieldwork. The Ethical Clearance Reference Number is UFS-HSD2024/1270. The data collected were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for the quantitative data, and ATLAS.ti software for the qualitative data. The quantitative results revealed that there is a high level of compliance with government regulations in the ECD sites managed by Tshepang Educare Trust and Ntataise Training and Resource Centre in the Free State Province. However, for the ECD sites managed by Lesedi Educare Association, there is a low level of compliance with government regulations in the ECD sites with respect to maintaining a staff-to-child ratio of 1:6 for 0-18 months children, having a house with additional structures on residential property, daycare centre or hall, maintaining a staff to child ratio of 1:15 for 18 months – 3 years children, and maintaining a staff-to-child ratio of 1:35 for after school centre, having the kitchen separated from the play area by at least a partition, having indoor space, having outdoor space and having practitioners’ offices as well as sickbay and isolation rooms. In line with this quantitative result, the practitioners at the ECD sites managed by Ntataise Training and Resource Centre and Tshepang Educare Trust reported qualitatively that they know the government policies on ECD. They try to comply with them accordingly, while those of the ECD sites managed by the Lesedi Educare Association reported that they are not aware of most government policies on ECD. These findings imply that if efforts are not made to make practitioners at Lesedi Educare aware of applicable ECD policies on government regulations, the quality of learning at such sites will be hindered. Therefore, the researchers recommend that policy documents on compliance with government regulations in early learning should be made available to practitioners at ECD sites managed by Lesedi Educare Association.

Keywords:

Early childhood development, Government regulations, Practitioners.