Bottlenecks to Early Childhood Education Curriculum Implementation in Primary Teachers’ Colleges: A Focus on Voices of Administrators
*Moses Wambi, Prof. Alice Merab Kagoda and Prof. Anthony Muwagga Mugagga – Makerere University-College of Education and External Studies *Corresponding author: moswambi@yahoo.com
Received December 11, 2019: Revised January 11, 2020; Accepted February 11, 2020
Abstract: In Primary Teachers’ Colleges, the ECE Curriculum consists of content specifications for preparing teacher trainees with skills for promoting practical learning among children in early years of studying. This paper reflects on exploration of Administrators’ views, lexis, perceptions, and opinions about the bottlenecks of ECE curriculum implementation in Primary Teachers’ Colleges (PTCs). Children are the future of every nation, world over and for that matter, whatever confronts a child threatens the future of a nation. Regrettably, ECE Curriculum Implementation has bottlenecks which necessitate critical analysis.Consequently, the belief that “effective ECE Curriculum implementation is a crucial turning point” dominates this presentation. Realizing that the practical component of ECE is not as it should be in early childhood development centers; and considering the corpus of evidence indicating that almost all issues in attribution rarely leaves out teachers, there was a need to extend the margin of investigation to Primary Teachers’ Colleges (PTCs). This was basically owing to the fact that tutors, who prepare teachers in handling children during ECE curriculum implementation too, were not free from the suspected hindrances. Tackling the problem from college level has totally changed the trend of affairs because it has been discovered that teachers’ failure is propagated by various factors surrounding tutors in PTCs. With all the inadequacies noticed almost in every pedagogical approach to ECE curriculum implementation, it is improbable that one may fail to establish some bottlenecks. In a nutshell, ECE curriculum implementation is affected by, among other factors, failure to put in place better mechanisms to boost participation of tutors and learners in the learning process. What must not be missed out is the fact that any messes that arise at college level is eventually replicated and reflected in primary schools among teacher graduates. No wonder, there are many teachers who are always transferring knowledge instead of letting pupils own the learning process by encouraging their active participation and involvement in lessons. There are also bottlenecks in failure to provide for individual differences and this is not advisable given the fact that many students join colleges from different backgrounds. Some of the teacher trainees are time takers whereas others are quick at grasping concepts. There are also bottlenecks in inadequacy of relevant and appropriate instructional materials to meet the needs of teachers who are expected to implement ‘Hands-on-Learning’ most especially, at a time when institutions of learning are striving to respond to the expectations of the 21st. century education.
