COVID-19 Crisis and Early Childhood Care and Education in Pakistan

Abstract

The major interruption is going to occur in children learning at all stages of Education because of worldwide closure of Educational institutions. Such interference in formal schooling experiences adversely affect academic outcomes of school age children. This study was qualitative in nature and phenomenology research design was adopted to investigate, how COVID-19 impacted early childhood care and Education in Pakistan. Sample selected through criterion sampling, a purposive sampling method. This study was based on 17 in-depth semi-structured interviews from teachers and parents of pre-school children. The results revealed that school closure due to COVID-19 had numerous adverse effects on dropout rate of students and learning of overall and learners with low readiness. It also effected children physical, social, emotional, language and literacy skills' development. Children emotional, literacy and social, language development identified most effected, whereas physical development were the least effected, among learning competencies reported by teachers. Parental involvement also contributed in their children learning through various activities during the closure but those activities were unstructured, unplanned, limited and not fruitful to buildup learning competencies in children appropriately. Whatever children learnt during this period, their learning was non-directional. Results may help school practitioners to make resolution about how to revive these effects on early years learning and education. This study may be a stepping stone for formal schooling in the course of future pandemics.