Quality Kindergarten Education In The Tamale Metropolis: A Study Of Public And Private Schools

ABSTRACT Access to kindergarten education has increased in Ghana currently, however, due to poor monitoring and evaluation systems, standards are often compromised. This study sought to assess quality kindergarten education using one hundred and two (102) public (52) and private (63) kindergartens in the Tamale Metropolis, of Ghana. A crosssectional design with mixed method approach was used to sample one hundred and twenty (120) teachers and ten (10) head teachers from the sampled schools. The selected respondents were given questionnaire to fill out and some interviewed face-toface, alongside classroom and environment observations. Data collected were analysed quantitatively using the Predictive Analytic Software (PASW version 22) and qualitatively by extracting themes and subthemes. The findings showed that all the respondents (both public and private schools) used the Ghana Education Service curriculum as a guide for teaching. Again, the findings showed that all the respondents practiced the whole class alongside small group instructional and assessment methods in their classrooms however, the respondents in the public schools used more whole class instructional and assessment methods than their counterparts in the private schools due to the large class sizes. The findings again show that the respondents had various understanding of quality which guides their teaching and assessment. It was concluded that, the respondents (heads of schools and teachers) have a wealth of knowledge which could be harnessed and implemented to achieve the desired quality in kindergarten education. The study therefore recommends that early childhood education programmes should provide kindergarteners with opportunities to be assessed with varying informal techniques and tools within children‘s natural learning settings to enable teachers provide relevant support in their development and learning. Again, it is further recommended that more infrastructural development should be  established to suit children‘s developmental needs. The findings of this study could serve as a basis for training for kindergarten teachers, and could also form the basis for policy and future research.