Early Child Hood Care and Education (ECCE): Practices and Challenges, the Case of Woldia Town, North East Ethiopia Melese Astatke ? & Kifle Kassaw ? Abstract-The study attempted to assess the current practices and major challenges of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Woldia town private owned 8 KG schools. As a means, mixed research method was employed to analyze both the collected qualitative and quantitative data. Participants of this study were 123 KG children, 32 teachers,8 principals,19 caregivers and34 parents who are members of Teacher Parent Student Association (TPSA). In order to select the participants, purposive, comprehensive, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were applied. The main data gathering instruments used in this study was observation, questionnaire and FGD. Moreover, document analysis was also used to collect supplementary data. Thematic data analysis techniques were also used to analyze the gathered qualitative data; whereas the quantitative data were analyzed by using statistical technique analysis of variance and post hoc comparison. The results obtained revealed that the studied private owned KG schools had no similar educational inputs. Most of the schools have no adequate physical learning environment such as buildings, classrooms, indoor outdoor materials and equipment, play grounds, and professional qualification of teachers and care givers based on the standard. Furthermore, the practices and major challenges of ECCE were also identified. Accordingly there was significance difference in effective utilization of some of the educational process. Only three KG schools were frequently employing child based teaching methods. Parents of these three schools children had better involvement in providing financial support, assessing their children interest and academic progress. Moreover, lack of trained KG care givers, assistant teachers and teachers, absence of professional development in the field of ECCE, inaccessibility physical learning environment of KGs, inaccessibility of indoor outdoor materials and equipment for children with disability, lack of budget on the ECCE program, inaccessibility and high cost of educational materials, lack of standardized class room space, absence of recreation center in a school and lack of standardize class room space were identified as the major challenges to implement ECCE in the studied KGs. Finally, the post hoc analysis result indicated that only one KG had statistically significance difference in educational output scores as compared to other schools. Lastly, pertinent recommendations were drawn from the findings and the conclusions of the study. I. # Back Ground arly child hood education is curial to the future well-being of children, and establishes the foundation for the acquisition of knowledge and skills that will affect later learning and behavior Suivant (2006:17). In addition, according to Mialarent (1976:33) Pre-school education is a crucial stage in the life span of human beings needing care and proper influence. The writer also explains that this is not without reason. This is the stage at which rapid physical and mental development takes place. Children are said to be achieved half adult stature and greatest development during this stage. In line with this, Bloom (1964:14) suggested that there is also much development in the intellectual growth in the first four or five years of life as the next thirteen years. One third of the child's school attainment potential has been determined by the time she/he enters primary school. As the above research findings showed that pre-school program is important for mental and physical development of children's in the early stage. Moreover, early childhood age is a time of remarkable transformation and extreme vulnerability (Chowdhury & Choudhury, 2002). A child's life represents crucial period of growth and change. Programmes that support young children during the years before they go to primary school provide strong foundations for subsequent learning and development. Such programs also compensate for disadvantage, disability and exclusion, offering a way out of poverty. That is the main intention of special needs education. In relation with this, 'World Declaration on Education for All' stressed that learning begins at birth. Systematic development of basic learning tools and concepts therefore requires that due attention should be given to care young children and their initial education, which can be delivered via arrangements that involve parents, teachers, caregivers, institutions and the community at large. If proper attention is not given to the early childhood care and education of children, our country's crime rate and school dropouts will go up, selfemployment will go down, our work force will negatively be affected and extra millions of dollars will be spent to solve the problems which otherwise could have been easily prevented by providing proper attention and Early E Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) during these vital years (Chowdhury & Choudhury, 2002). Considering these realities one may not have doubt on the fact that early (ECCE) is valuable in light of later schooling adjustment and a child's holistic development. Besides, it is also the first stage of education where the foundation for life-long learning and all round development is laid and its contribution is to build a sustainable society. According to Boren and Pickett (1954: 8), pre-school education seeks to cultivate proper habit of living to develop social cooperation and individual responsibility to stimulate initiative and resourcefulness and to develop the ability to solve the daily problems of group life. In addition, Brudenell (2004) states that Early Childhood education (ECE) is a roadmap that helps children of today to be prepared for the vastly complex and rapidly changing world of tomorrow. Even though preschool education has different development stages at different time in the globe May H., Kaur, B., Prochner, L. ( 2006) stated that Preschool education has expanded by the European colonization to the rest of the world by their religious missionaries. Early childhood is the period of life when humans are most dependent on secure, responsive relationships with others (adults, siblings and peers), not just to ensure their survival, but also their emotional security, social integration and cognitive and cultural competencies (National Policy Frame Work for ECCE in Ethiopia, 2010). According to the Education Sector Development Program V (ESDP V): In the final year of ESDP IV, 7 out of 36 colleges of teacher education (CTEs) began a multi-year diploma specifically for pre-primary teachers. Among these, one has skilled teacher educators for ECCE and during ESDP V activities will seek to improve teacher educators' knowledge, skills and experience for ECCE instruction across all CTEs. In addition, standards for learning materials in O-Classes and a specific curriculum are under development, along with the preparation of a one-year certificate training curriculum. These activities, along with pilots of accelerated child readiness programs, evaluations of Child-to-Child and assessments of O-Class provision will provide valuable inputs to improve the quality of pre-primary education during ESDP V. Hence, in this study, the researchers makean effort to document the current practices and challenges of ECCE in woldia town private owned KG schools. This is done by compartmentalizing the preschool education in to educational inputs, processes and outputs. Moreover, the very essence of conducting this study is to document practices of ECCE among the KGs so as to minimize and fulfill the observed educational gaps (if any). As a result, pre-school children will get appropriate educational services in an environment which is conducive for teaching learning processes. To this end the following research questions have been examined in the course of the study in order to address the problem. # Methods a) Design of the Study The main purpose of this study was to assess current practices and challenges of early child hood care and education in Woldia town. Accordingly, in this study, a survey method was employed. For this purpose, the study had employed mixed research method where both qualitative and quantitative data gathering methods and analysis were used. The In Ethiopia, the pre-school education was established in 1908E.C. in Dire-Dawa to provide necessary caring services for the children of the French consultants who were assisting in the building of first rail road in Ethiopia (Demeke cited in Demeke, 2007:181). However, since then there were poor efforts exerted to facilitate the opportunity for providing the program for the pre-school age group and improve the whole practices. As a result, the coverage and the quality of the program still remained considerably limited. But according to Education International (2008), National Policy Frame Work for ECCE in Ethiopia (2010), education, including early childhood education (ECE), is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Similarly, Wood head, M. (2006) asserted that, the enhancement of the quality of young children's live is a national and international priority, expressed through research and policy initiatives, programme development and advocacy. researchers had employed the mixed research methods to expand a thorough understanding and to triangulate findings from different data sources which were gathered sequentially. In line with this, Creswell et al. (2009:203) argued that, combining quantitative and qualitative methods in educational and social research are a better approach. Using both Quantitative and qualitative methods can capitalize on the strength of each approach and offset their different limitations. It could also provide more comprehensive and complete answers to the basic research questions, going beyond the limitations of a single approach. # b) Data Sources The data sources for the study were two types: primary and secondary. The primary data were collected from KG teachers, principals and children. The other supplementary data sources were KG care givers, and parents who were members of TPSA which are found in the study area. The secondary data were gathered from children's exercise-books feedback given both by the KG teachers and children's parents'. # c) Population of the Study The population of this study was1289 KG children. These children are currently attending their ECCE program in eight private owned KGs which are found in woldia town. In these KGs, there are 8 principals, 32KG teachers, 11 assistant teachers and 19 KG caregivers who are currently running the ECCE program at the school level. Moreover, there are 34 parents who are members of Teacher Parent Student Association (TPSA). # d) Sample and Sampling Techniques Hundred percent of the school principals, teachers, care givers and parents who were members of the TPSA from each private KG schools of Woldia town were selected.10% of the KG children from each private KG schools were the target sample size. The selection of sampling techniques for the study was made based on the representativeness and resourcefulness of the sample and the type of population considered. Accordingly, both probability and non probability sampling techniques were employed. Purposive sampling technique in selecting woreda, comprehensive sampling technique-in selecting private KG schools, principals, teachers, care givers and TPSAs were employed. In addition stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used respectively in selecting KG children. School and sex used as strata to make the samples proportion. # e) Data Collection Instruments As indicated before, this study employed both qualitative and quantitative research method in order to achieve the stated objectives. Therefore, it employed multiple data collection tools such as, questionnaire: Close ended questionnaires adopted from Am hear Education Bureau preschool standard in the form of four scale rating items (i.e. very low (1), low (2), medium (3), high (4) were administered for the respected respondents. Focus group discussion, observation and document analysis (children's exercise books to view their teachers and parents comments) were also used. # f) Data Gathering Procedures Before administering the data gathering process, the participants of the study were well oriented about the purpose of the study. Questionnaires and observation, which are the major data sources of the study, were employed to collect data. Questionnaires (76 close ended items: 25 input based items, 39 process based items and 12 output based items and3 open ended items) were collected from KG teachers, care givers and assistant teachers. And also 8 privately owned KG schools were observed. As regarding the questionnaire 32 KG school teachers, 19 care givers and 11 assistant teachers filled out the questionnaire containing issues about the educational inputs to implement ECCE, practices of ECCE, output of ECCE as well as challenges of ECCE in the studied KG schools. Regarding observation, an observation checklist was prepared and used to guide the classroom and outside the classroom observations. In addition, FGD was conducted to collect data from KG principals and TPSAs. It was held at least with the presence of one TPSA member, care giver, assistant teacher and principal from each KG school. And also we observed the123 randomly selected children's exercise books of the studied KG schools to view the comments of their teachers and parents. IV. # Methods of Data Analysis Descriptive statistical methods were used to analyze the study. Different statistical tools (both descriptive and inferential) such as: Percentage, frequency counts, mean, grand mean and standard deviation were employed. To examine mean differences, One-way (or single factor) ANOVA was used. Post hoc comparison further was used. Thematic data analysis techniques were also used to analyze the gathered qualitative data. V. # Results and Discussion The main purpose of this study was to assess the current practices and challenges of ECCE through compartmentalizing the educational processes in to educational input, process and output. In addition, it was designed to examine and document the current practices and main challenges of ECCE. Therefore this part of the paper deals with the presentation and analysis of data collected from respondents to address the basic research questions. Analysis of the data is the matically organized. Moreover, for simplicity, only major findings are reported. # a) Delivery of Educational Inputs to Implement ECCE In early childhood period, a child learns through interacting with immediate environment. Hence, the environment must be physically safe, socially enhancing, emotionally nurturing, intellectually stimulating and should equipped with variety of materials to arouse and maintain the child's curiosity, interest and promote learning and academic readiness (Chowdhury & Choudhury, 2002). Therefore, so as to assess the current practices of ECCE the researchers had selected some specific educational inputs such as, KGs' physical learning environment, availability and adequacy of indoor outdoor materials and equipment, teachers and caregivers professional qualification. i. Physical Learning Environment of ECCE Chowdhury and Choudhury (2002) stated that the site of ECCE includes proper location, soil, the aspect and elevation. The ideal location of preschool as far as possible should be in the neighborhood of the children served. The preschool may be located away from the crowded areas of the site/city, cemetery and main traffic areas for the purpose of children's safety. The vicinity must also be such as to permit any future expansion. The researchers' general observation of the eight sampled preschools in Woldia town showed that, the site, location, and surrounding area of ECCE did not take into consideration when it was select the site for ECCE. Therefore, from this point of view one can infer that the studied preschools were not built for the purpose of ECCE and at the same time did not take the accessibility issue for preschool children in general and children with disability in particular. Hence, this may hamper children's all round development and reduce the participation of children with disabilities. Majority of the studied KGs' toilet per child and pure-water per child ratio was found to be below 1:20. But relatively, one of the KGs has drinking pure and safe water as compared to other preschools. However this finding is inconsistent with the standard adapted by MoE (2009) indicates the water tap and clean toilet should be 1:20 per child. In addition, the observation showed that there was a lack of child size toilets and the toilets were not close and were not cleanly kept, and no potable water points. This result is parallel with the result of Tirussew et al (2009) which noted that in Benishangul Gumz, Oromiya and Addis Ababa city administration sampled preschools had no child -size toilets. ii. Availability and Adequacy of Class Room Space, Indoor Outdoor Materials and Equipment in ECCE Indoor materials and equipment are an integral part of the effective implementation of ECCE. These materials and equipment contribute its lion's share in attracting and getting the attention of children for long period of time. It also makes the teaching learning process more concrete, suitable and easily understandable. More particularly, locally produced instructional materials are very vital in creating different mental maps and conceptual understandings (Chowdhury & Choudhury 2002). Majority of the studied KGs were not equipped with different locally produced indoor equipment and instructional materials. In addition, most of the studied KGs had no standardized child sized table, chairs and shelves. Moreover, majority of the studied KGs had no clean and well ventilated class-rooms. And also they had no sufficient amount of light. Furthermore our observation showed the following serious problems that include; lack of areas for children to rest, lack of children story books if there were some all of them were not developmentally and culturally appropriate, and lack of play materials such as manipulative. None of the preschools used the syllabus for pre-primary schools prepared by Ministry of Education. Many did not even know the existence of syllabus. Moreover different preschools used different textbooks. Some used grade one text books .Others used text books of literacy campaign. The result of this study goes in contrast to Boren and Pickett (1954) and Chowdhury and Choudhury (2002) which explain that the presence of adequate indoor materials and equipment were fundamental for the effective implementation of various class-room activities in particular and ECCE in general. More specifically, Boren and Picket (1954) suggested that every room used by KG should contain child sized furniture table and chairs that are important for children to sit and work at puzzles, games and others that is necessary for children to develop new skills using real tools and real world. Regarding the negative impact of narrow classrooms and absence of appropriate teaching materials, Bruce (2011) stated that children cannot learn without real, direct and first-hand experiences. Moreover, regarding the adequacy of indoor space, Gans Steindler and Almy (1952:352) noted that "in schools where there is adequate space and storage the varied activities go on without friction and all the materials can be tided away and kept dust-free and orderly." On the other hand, where space is restricted, impromptu partnering of any kind occurs less often than when children circulate more freely in the block area (Procchner, 1992:l6). From this point of view one can infer that majority of the studied KGs have similar in door materials and equipment. In addition to this, they have no wide class room and child sized chairs and tables. Hence, this may affect the proper implementation of ECCE in general and academic achievement of the children. iii. Professional Qualification and Experience of ECCE a. Teachers and Caregivers Most of the teachers who are currently working in the studied KGs were diploma holders in the field of TVET education. Very small number of teachers had diploma in other field of education but not in preschool education. Insignificant numbers of teachers' were preschool education graduates. The rest were grade ten completed. This indicated that, majority of teachers had no better educational qualification. Therefore, from this point of view one can conclude that KG teachers were providing services without having preschool education training. Similarly the result of this study is consistent with the study of Tirussew et al (2009) which denoted that there was a limitation of ECCE professionals in that; ECE teachers were not trained, ECE directors were not trained in ECE management. Therefore, from this point of view one can conclude that KG caregivers are providing services without having pre and in-service training. This might result in poor implementation of ECCE and children who are currently learning in these KGs may have some difficulty in relation to the service they get from the untrained KG caregivers. In general to examine the provision of inputs in the eight preschools we provided 25 items close ended questionnaire for respondents and their response is analyzed using ANOVA and post hoc as shown below: The result of one way ANOVA implied that the studied privately owned KG schools have a significant difference on delivery of educational inputs to implement ECCE (p<0.05). The Tuky HSD POST HOC multiple comparisons means based on delivery of educational inputs to implement ECCE indicating that only the three KG schools have better educational inputs to implement ECCE than the other five studied privately owned KG schools. # b) Implementation of Early Child Hood Care and Education i. Most commonly used method of teaching As the research hers' classroom observation results of this study only a few teachers (31%) of teachers in the study area often used cooperative teaching methods. This indicated that teachers had no better used cooperative teaching method. The result of this study goes in contrast to Christensen & Mora Vick (1987:208), who stated that cooperative teaching method is the best teaching method in kindergarten. The teacher structured the task in such a way that involvement of each member contributes to implementation of the task. Establishing and maintaining cooperative group norms develops the concept of a community of learners. Moreover, the method enhances student's respect for and understanding of individual differences in the ability, interest and needs. However, some of the teachers used play based method. This indicated that teachers in the few KGs had better used play based teaching method as compared to teachers in the other KGs. The result of this study goes in line with most early years professionals who agreed on that play is the first and most appropriate mode of instruction in KG (Beaver et al., 2008;Jones and Cooper, 2006;Tallack, 1997;Boren and picket, 1954;Froebel cited in Johnson, 1987;Christensen & Moravick, 1987;). Play enables children to actively engage in different activities and help them to interact with both adults and children. This helps become part of the large community. More particularly, it helps children to accumulate a vast amount of vocabulary that is paramount important for their language, arithmetic and intellectual development. Hence, this type of teaching method can help teachers to address children's individual differences and at the same time to implement child-centered teaching method. Furthermore, according to this study results, teachers in the KGs schools had better used story telling teaching method. The result of this study goes in line with Choudhury and Chowdhury (2002) and Brewster et al. ( 2008) they confirmed that children love stories. It provides them both pleasure and information for KG children. Stories can be either written or oral and can provide either imaginary events or descriptions of real life, past or present. Children usually feel comfortable with them as there is a familiar structure to them. In addition sharing a story at home with family and/or at school between teachers and children has great contribution for development of literacy skills. Hence, this type of teaching method can help teachers to address children's individual differences and at the same time to implement child-centered teaching method. # ii. Parents' Involvement in Facilitating their Children's learning The FGD part of the study presents the major findings of parental involvement in their preschool children's education. It was found that, parents' involvement in bringing and taking children to and from the preschool; providing financial support and in assessing their children interest and academic progress was found better. The researchers tried to analysis the document particularly children's exercise-books feedback given both by the KG teachers and children's parents' showed that most of the three KGs students' children parents and few of the rest KGs parents tried to comment and suggest about children academic performance and also gave possible solutions. This result also confirmed during focus group discussion of members of TPSA which are found in the study area. Early Child Hood Care and Education (ECCE): Practices and Challenges, the Case of Woldia Town, North East Ethiopia them to develop their social skills, to get access to information processes in a meaningful way and to The result of this study goes in line with Fantuzzo, Davis and Ginsburg (1995) that assured the degree of participation of parents in their children education enhances children's academic performance. In addition, best practice in the field of early childhood suggests that successful partnership between schools and families increases the involvement of family on varying levels and encourage positive family outcome (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). Similarly, Hoover-Dempsey et al, (2005) states that children whose parents are involved have better grades and test scores. Furthermore, the degree of parental involvement in the factor for the success of the learners. In line with this, the greater involvement of parents in the KGs and the children's academic achievement might have positive relationship. Therefore preferably further research should be investigated in the area to determine the correlation and to what extent does parental involvement affects the children's holistic development in general and academic achievement in particular. iii. Role of Government in Monitoring and Evaluation of ECCE Our observation regarding the role of government in monitoring and evaluation of ECCE the study found that similar types of KG syllabus were distributed in all the studied KGs. This syllabus was set by MoE in 2009. However, in all the studied KGs there was no work book for children. In addition, there was no teachers guide, supportive teaching materials for children with different type of disabilities such as Braille paper, mobility and orientation training, sign language training materials, resource centers etc. The result of this study goes in line with MoE (2002) which stated that the roles of government in preschool education vary considerably from one country to another. In many developing countries, government does not involve providing pre-school education while in the developed countries the provision of pre-school education by government is highly introduced recently after they had achieved universal primary education. However, in Kenya, for instance pre-school education is provided for the private organizations, religious and nongovernmental organizations (IDCR, 1983 cited in Amele work, 2007). In many cases, the government effort is focused on developing educational policy, training of teachers, caregivers, preparation of quality standard, organization of syllabus etc. Focus group discussions were also held with school principals, TPSA, care givers and assistant teachers to examine extent of government involvement in early childhood education. In almost all the FGDs, Participants indicated lack of government support in many ways: failure in providing policy directions, curricular materials, failure to make budgetary allocations, not making material provision and technical support. Furthermore, to examine the practices of ECCE in the eight preschools we provided 39 items close ended questionnaire for respondents and their response is analyzed using ANOVA and post hoc as shown below: The result of the above one way ANOVA implied that the studied privately owned KG schools have a significant difference on implementation of ECCE (p<0.05). The Tuky HSD POST HOC multiple comparisons means based on implementation of ECCE indicating that only the three KG schools have better implementation of ECCE than the other five studied privately owned KG schools. # c) Achievement of ECCE Educational Out Puts According to the Amhara Education Bureau preschool education standard and as it is clearly indicated in the conceptual frame work of the study, preschool children are expected to achieve the four educational out puts: physically and mentally developed, self-confident and disciplined, identify and design words and number and also active in social life and ready to formal education. In order to assess the achievement of educational out puts children who were attending their preschool education in the private KGs schools,12 preschool standards based Close ended questionnaires were administered for respondents of all eight KG schools. In this study, it was found that educational output had statistically significant difference among the eight KG children. That is, children in three KGs/ KGA, KGB, and KGC scored better result in educational output score as compared to children from the rest KGs. moreover, the further post hoc analysis result indicated that only one KG school had statistically significant difference in educational output score as compared to the other three. The result is shown by the following table: This also triangulated by classroom observation and FGD that the above three KGs children had the potential to appreciate nature, express their feelings freely and respect their peers, caregivers and teachers as compared to the rest five KGs. Most children do have the capacity to express their feelings by following their turn. Findings by Bruce (2011) stated that children cannot learn without real, direct and first-hand experiences. Moreover, regarding the adequacy of indoor space, Gans Steindler and Almy (1952:352) noted that "in schools where there is adequate space and storage the varied activities go on without friction and all the materials can be tided away and kept dustfree and orderly." On the other hand, where space is restricted, impromptu partnering of any kind occurs less often than when children circulate more freely in the block area (Procchner, 1992:l6). Similarly, Christensen and Mora Vick (1987:137) expressed that, "many children are disadvantaged with crowded class as they are deprived of space, privacy and time for exploration, interaction and discussion." As a result children might get low academic achievement in particular and poor implementation of ECCE in general. According to Chowdhur and Choudhury (2002), the important teaching methods in preschools include play, store telling, motivating the curiosity of the child, helping the child to learn through experience, discussion, rhythm, music and movement, dramatization and field trips and excursion. As, whole preschool teachers are urged to use developmentally appropriate and varied teaching methods in order to help develop the children's scientific knowledge, attitudes and enhance the child's educational out puts. This indicated that employing inappropriate educational inputs and throughputs may greatly affect the educational output of the KG children. In general, parental involvement, effective utilization of teaching aids, employing child-centered teaching methods and proper utilization of indoor outdoor materials and equipment for conducive learning environment might be the result for significant difference in the educational output of children in the KG. In addition, the TPSA indicated that there was unfastened collaboration among the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Education and Ministry of Social and Labour Affairs (MoLSA) in providing coordinated service for the KG children. The result of this study was consistent with Tirussew et al (2009) research reported that challenges of preschools were lack of trained KG teachers ,if there are some, the teachers are trained for primary schools as being qualified to teach at preschool level and absence of professional development of KG teachers. # VI. # Conclusion Putting the findings of this study as a point of reference, the researchers have able to wind up this study by identifying some remarks or terminating ideas. Hence, based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn: Most of the studied private owned KGs have no similar educational inputs which help them for their current practices of ECCE. More specifically, they have no similar KG physical learning environment such as, buildings, class-rooms, indoor outdoor materials and equipment, play-grounds, KGs syllabus and professional qualifications of caregivers. The other issue which is considered in this study is the children's educational outputs in the studied private owned KGs. In this study, it was found that educational out puts had statistically significant difference among the eight KG children. That is, children in three KGs/ KG school A, KG school B, and KG school C scored better result in number and letter identification test score as compared to children from the rest KG schools. Moreover, the further post hoc analysis result indicated that only one KG had statistically significant difference in educational output score as compared to the other schools. The result from observation showed that most students do have the capacity to express their feelings by following their turn. On the other hand, lack of trained KG care givers, assistant teacher and teachers, absence of KG directors, absence of professional development in the field of ECCE, in accessible physical learning environment of KGs, indoor outdoor materials and equipment for children with disability, lack of budget on the ECCE program, inaccessibility and high cost of educational materials, absence of recreation center in a school, lack of standardized class room space, absence of recreation center in a school and lack of standardize class room space were identified as some of the major challenges in the current practice of ECCE in the studied KGs. Based on the major findings, the methods of teaching that are assumed to be employed in all preschool education centers were proved to be badly practiced. This implies that without sound method of teaching children's learning will be frustrating and lead to failure in the children's achievement. Therefore, we can say that, if preschool teachers' knowledge and skills is not related to child centered, then this will severely affect the quality of the program. According to the study, the procedures do schools follow to mobilize local community & gain support from external sources indicate that it was proved to be poorly practiced. Therefore, the opportunity that the schools should obtain from stake holders would be lost and remained to be challenge to the program. It was found in the study Furthermore, the researchers had identified that in the studied private owned KGs there was significant difference in effective utilization of some of the educational process. More specifically, three KGS teachers were frequently employing teaching methods such as, brainstorming, play based, storytelling, and integrated rhythm, music and dance well than the other five KGs. In addition this study has identified additional points, that is, parents in the three KGs had better involvement in bringing and taking their children to and from the KGs. In addition, parents of children in the three KGs had better involvement in providing financial support, assessing their children interest and academic progress, providing volunteering services than the parents in the rest KGs. that the program is characterized by lack of budget, standard payment of preschool teachers and assistant teachers (absolutely not practiced), parents low awareness and long distance, low participation of community associations. From this evidence, it is possible to conclude that the program could not be effectively implemented. And significant achievement could not be obtained this also could be more difficult to assure the quality of education within the nation's strategic plan. 1ParticipantsMalePopulation FemaleTotalMaleSample FemaleTotalSample size in %kG school principals178178100KG school teachers0323203232100Care givers0191901919100KG children6925971289636012310KG assistant0111101111100TPSA201434201434100Total693680137384143227 2Delivery of ECCE INPUT Sum of SquaresdfMean SquareFSig.Between Groups10.64771.52110.420.000Within Groups7.88254.146 3Implementation of ECCE Sum of SquaresDfMean SquareFSig.Between Groups7.98171.1409.884.000Within Groups6.22954.115Total14.21061 4Educational outputSum of SquaresdfMean SquareFSig.Between Groups8.88661.48130.124.000Within Groups2.70455.049Total11.58961 d) Major implementation of ECCE practical challenges As Daniel, Haile, and MoE (2010), Tirussew affecting the (2005) ? Absence of trained KG teachers, assistant teachers and care givers in preschool education ? absence of professional development in ECCE ? lack of curriculum based books ? low interest of the community to preschool education ? inaccessible physical environment for most children with disabilities, ? Inaccessibility and high cost of educational materials. ? Lack of standardize class room space ? Absence of readiness to address the needs of disability ? 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