Challenges Facing Early Childhood Education

Running head: CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 1
Early childhood education
[Institution]
[Name]

CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 2
Early childhood educators are personnel given responsibility to teach and take care of
children from birth to a maximum of eight years. Early childhood educators are very crucial
for children development since this is the most initial stages of child development in life.
Children at this stage are very eager to learn languages, behaviours, and other classwork like
basic reading and writing skills. Pianta, Downer & Hamre (2016), in their article, The Future
of Children, emphasizes on the four aspects that define quality education in early childhood.
“Definitions of quality in early education, the authors write, generally include four
aspects. The first is a program’s structural elements, such as the length of the
school day or teachers’ qualifications. The second encompasses general features of
the classroom environment, ranging from playground equipment to activities
involving staff, children, or parents. Third, are the dimensions of teacher-student
interactions that children experience directly. Finally, aggregate indices—such as
quality rating and improvement systems—combine measurements across types of
program elements...”
The educators are equipped to ensure that children are progressively developing physically,
mentally, and emotionally. This can be achieved by empowering early childhood educators
with skills and knowledge, which enables them to handle the children effectively. They can
also be provided with tools and equipment that will facilitate children learning. Also, the
relation between the teacher and parents is vital to early childhood education. Parent
involvement in the children learning activities is an encouragement to both the teacher and
the student. Though educators may find their career fun to associate with children, there are
usually challenges that they face at work (Biesta, 2015).

CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 3
Early childhood educators face a challenge of balancing between different
situations in class. This may include, balancing between children behaviour, parents, and
regular class activities. Every child has different behaviour. This includes children who cause
trouble by either bullying their peers, and others are used to crying often with no reason,
while some are unwilling to follow the instructions given to them. This may be difficult for
the educator to manage, as well as following the lesson plan of the day (Davidsen, 2018). The
educator is usually in constant communication with the children’s parents. Some parents may
put the educator in a more difficult situation than they can afford. For example, the parent
may want the child to be fed more times than the educator can manage. This results into
conflict between the educator and the parent. At the same time, the educator struggles to
balance between satisfying the parent’s demand, meeting children needs, and maintaining
professionalism. The challenge in balancing between different aspects in class can be solved
by several measures .One of them being enlightening the students on the punishments that
accompany misbehaviour. Also, the teacher and parents can collaborate in ensuring smooth
learning programs. For example, an educator may call for a meeting with parents to discuss
issues affecting pupils.
Low teacher to pupil ratio is also a challenge facing early children educators.
This is due to the high population of children, while the number of professionals is relatively
low. As a result, a huge number of pupils are experienced. This forces the educator to be
given a more significant number of children to manage. This may be a challenge since every
child needs proper attention as the children are at their tender stage in their life. For example,
a teacher-student ratio can be said to be 1:30, meaning that there is one teacher in a class of
30 students. At this stage, their needs are very fundamental and demand urgency. This leaves
the educator with little time to engage in professional development opportunities. The
educator becomes much occupied in managing day to day activities by the end; the educator