IMPLEMENTATION OF SINGLE NATIONAL CURRICULUM EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION IN PUNJAB: WRITTEN AND ENACTED CURRICULUM PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The current study was framed to determine the gaps between written and enacted curriculum implementation determinants; teaching methods, instructional materials, assessment, and professional development of the single national curriculum early childhood care and education. The study was quantitative and based on survey research design. The study sample consisted of 300 male and female teachers selected through a simple random sampling technique.  A self-constructed Early Childhood Care and Education Curriculum Implementation Questionnaire for Teachers (ECCECIQT) was used to collect data from public primary school ECCE teachers in the district of Hafizabad.  The content validated of ECCECIQT was ensured by experts and reliability was calculated employing Cronbach’s Alpha score .936. The collected data were analyzed by applying mean, standard deviation, frequency, and t-test to determine the difference between teachers’ genders.  The study results showed that 64.18% of teaching methods were in use and 35.99% of the gap existed, however, 45.56% of instructional material was in use and, 45.44% of the gap existed. The results showed that 70.69% of assessment techniques were being implemented and 29.31% of the gap existed.  Similarly, 66.46% of teachers were professionally trained and 33.54% of teachers were still not provided with training. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between males and females in the implementation of SNC ECCE but the mean scores of females were more than the mean scores of male teachers.  Based on the results, it was recommended that the government provide funds for ECCE instructional materials by the curriculum. The education department and head teachers ensured the implementation of curriculum-based teaching methods. Teachers' training institutions provide curriculum-based teachers’ training for effective curriculum implementation. Head teachers bound teachers to implement the ECCE curriculum according to its true spirit.