Research consultancy

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the results of findings of the study. The findings were presented in four sections. Section one deals with background information including gender, age range, religious affiliation, employer, employment status and qualification of the respondents. Section two present results on research objective (1). Section three results are findings for research objective (2) while section four deals with results of the findings for objective (3) of the study.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The background information was important for this study because it informed the study on the kind of people who work in the ECD centres. The findings of the results are presented below.

Table 4.1: Gender of respondents

The results above reveal more females than males in the study. The age range was relevant in this study to know the most active age range at the ECD centre. The findings were tabulated in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2 (b): Age range of respondents

The results in Table 4.2 revealed that centres have mixed age range. It revealed 71 percent of the respondents had average years of less than 30 years of age.  This means that ECD centres have different categories of employees who are able to guide in the running of the centre although the youth dominated. The respondents were asked about their religious affiliation. The responses were summarized in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3: Religious affiliation of respondents

Table 4.3 revealed that all religions were represented in the study although Islam was the least represented in the study. This means that ECD centres enroll children irrespective of their religious affiliation. Respondents were asked about their employment status. Their responses were summarized in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4: Employer of the respondents for the study

Table 4.4 revealed that most employees working at the ECD centres are privately employed. However, there are some who are self-employed while some are civil servants working with the government. This means ECD support systems employ most of the respondents on private basis. Respondents were also asked about their employment status. This was summarized in Table 4.5.

Table 4.5: Employment status of the respondents

Table 4.5 showed most of the respondents being employed on contractual terms. This means that employees’ contracts are either renewed every after six months or annually. Respondents were asked about their qualifications as well. Below is a summary of their qualifications on table 4.6.

Table 4.6: Qualification of respondents

Table 4.6 revealed that the highest number of the caregivers hold certificates. It also revealed that some caregivers lack qualifications. This means that most of the employees at the ECD centres have a certificate in community child care certificate as the highest level of qualification.

ECD SUPPORT SYSTEMS AND SUSTAINABILITY OF COMMUNITY BASED CENTRES.

In this section the aim was to present data for the first research objective/hypothesis. This objective was set with the aim to find out specifically the roles Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) play in stimulating community participation for sustainable practices in ECD programme. Responses were asked to indicate their level of agreement with a list of possible roles that ECD support systems play in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. There were three categories of responses namely: SD/D representing the percentage of respondents who indicated either Strongly Disagree/Disagree; N representing the percentage of respondents who were Neutral and SA/A represented the percentage of respondents who indicated either Strongly Agree/Agree. The findings are presented in Table 4.7.

Table 4.7 Roles of early childhood development support systems

Source: Primary data 2017

            Results in Table 4.7 indicate that ECD support systems play most of the roles identified above apart from two. Out of the ten roles identified, eight of (65 percent and above) the respondents indicated strongly agree or agree.

However, two roles received unfavorable ratings, indicating that respondents did not perceive them as central roles played by ECD support systems. Specifically, on the role of “make repairs at the centre,” 75.5 percent of the respondents indicated strongly disagree or disagree. For the role of “recruit staff for the centre,” the perception of respondents were almost divided into half with 52.4 percent indicating strongly disagree or disagree while 44 percent of the respondents strongly agree or agree

Relationship between ECD Support Systems and Sustainability of Community Based Centres

The role of ECD support systems in ensuring sustainability of community based centres was examined by analyzing the relationship between these two variables using the Pearson correlation co-efficient and the results are showed in Table 4.8 below.

Table 4.8 Findings on sustainability of Community Centre

The above results indicate that the relationship between ECD support systems and sustainability of ECD centres is both positive and statistically significant (r =340; p=.000). this means that an improvement in ECD support system is associated with an improvement in sustainability of ECD centres, to a statistically significant extent. This finding also reveals that ECD support systems are relevant for sustainability of Community Based Centres. This is not in line with the study hypothesis: “there is no statistically significant relationship between ECD support systems and sustainability of community based centres.”  The study therefore leads to rejecting the hypothesis

Summary of results

            Regarding ECD support systems and sustainability of community based centres, what seems to come out is that ECD support systems plays most of the roles a part from making repairs and recruitment of volunteers.

Table 4.10 (a) Responses on community participation

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF COMMUNITY BASED ECD CENTRE

The roles communities perform in ensuring sustainability of ECD centres were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as calculating the Pearson correlation co-efficient. The results are given in in the Tables that follow.

Table 4.9: Do parents take their children to ECD centre?

Source: Primary data 2017

The results in Table 4.9 above reveal that 96 percent of the respondents do not take their children to study in ECD centres. This means parents probably take their children to private nursery schools or even keep them at home till they are 6 years of age then take them directly to primary one. The respondents were asked places where their children study from. The following were the responses as shown in Table 4.10.

Table 4.10: Which type of schools do parents take their children to study?

Source: Primary data 2017

From the results in Table 4.11, 69.6 percent of the respondents take their children to private nursery schools. However, others (22.1 percent) take their children to community ECD centres while (18.1 percent) enroll their children straight to government aided primary schools. This means that not every member in the community enrolls his/her child in the established community ECD centres.  The respondents were asked why they do not take their children to established ECD centres. The respondents gave their responses as shown in Table 4.11.

Table 4.11: Why parents don’t take their children to study at ECD centres

Source: Primary data 2017

From the results in Table 4.11 most parents do not take their children to community ECD centres because of unqualified caregivers/teachers (58 percent) and low standards (29 percent). However, the rest gave reasons like poverty (5 percent); ignorance (4 percent) and poor facilities at the ECD centre (3 percent) for not taking their children to ECD centresbut the percentages are very low. The respondents were also required to state the enrollment of children in ECD centres. Their responses were as seen in Table 4.12.

Table 4.12: How is the enrollment of the pupils at the centre?

Source: Primary data 2017

Table 4.12 above indicates that the enrollment of pupils in community ECD centre is low, (71 percent). This means that lack qualified caregivers/teachers and low standards in various ECD centres contribute to low enrollment as seen in Table 4.11. this prompted the researcher to find out reasons for unstable enrollment. The following were their responses on Table 4.13 below.

Table 4.13: Reasons for any of the choices on the status of enrollment at the centres

Source: Primary data 2017

Results in Table 4.13 indicate low standard because of unqualified caregivers/teachers as a major reason why they take their children to others schools (71.7 percent) as earlier on seen in Table 4.10. The other reasons are poverty 15 percent); they see it as a wastage of time and money (5.7 percent); the centre is quite far from where they live (4.9 percent) and ignorance of some parents (2.7 percent). However, these percentages are still low. This means that most parents now know benefits of early education although there are those who are still ignorant and reluctant to take their children to existing ECD centres. Respondents were asked it communities can be able to sustain the community ECD centres without support from NGOs. Their responses were summarized in Table 4.14.

Table 4.14: Can communities sustain ECD centres without NGO support?

Source: Primary data 2017

The results from Table 4.14 reveal that communities are likely not to sustain the up early childhood development centre without the support of Non-Governmental Organisations (87 percent). Some others (13 percent) accepted that they can sustain these centres but the percentage however is very low. This implies that without the support from NGOs community centres will definitely collapse. Respondents were asked to identify some reasons why communities cannot be able to sustain the centres when NGOs withdraw their support. Their responses were summarized in Table 4.15.

Table 4.15: Why can’t community sustain ECD centres?

Source: Primary data 2017

The results in Table 4.15 reveal that parents are not cooperative and this is the major reason why they cannot manage to sustain the established ECD centres (67.7 percent). The other reasons are ignorance (18.6 percent); lack of money to pay caregivers (10.6 percent) and poverty (3.1 percent). However, all these reasons cannot be ignored because they are all important in sustainability of community ECD centres. This implies that parents do not work as a team after the centre has been established. The respondents were asked whether they were allowed to make decisions at the centre. Their responses were summarized in table 4.16.

Table 4.16: Centre management committee members were allowed to make decisions

Source: Primary data 2017

The results in Table 4.16 above revealed 53 percent of the respondents who said that they are not involved in decision making as Members of the Centre Management Committee (CMC) while a big percentage (47 percent) said they do make decisions at the centre. This means that powers are shared to give room for communities to practice running these ECD centres so that when the NGOs withdraw their support when they are well grounded in administrative roles. There is also a possibility that much as there is a set administrative committee set up, their impact in making decisions may not be seriously implemented as they are appointed verbally without ant terms of reference but to help in areas where the focal point person finds challenges. The respondents were asked to identify some of the factors that influence sustainability of ECD centres. Their responses were analyzed in the Table 4.17 as summarized below.

Table 4.17:  Shows the influence of community participation on sustainability of ECD centres.

Source: Primary data 2017

Results in the Table above indicate that community participation influences most of the roles identified above. For all the seven influences identified most of the respondents (51.1 percent and above) indicated either strongly agree or agree. All the influences received favorable rating, indicating that respondents perceived them as central factors that influence the communities to be able to sustain ECD centres.

However, one factor, “improved pupil retention “received a high percentage of unfavorable ratings, with (42.7 percent) indicating strongly disagree or disagree, which reflects low standard.

Table 4.18: Correlation Co-efficient of Community participation and sustainability of ECD centres

Source: Secondary Data

The results in Table 4.18 above indicate that the relationship between community participation and sustainability of ECD centres is both positive and statistically significant (i.e. r=3.18; p=.ooo). From the above findings, it’s evident that sustainability of ECD centres is affected by community participation. It is therefore important for community to be involved in ECD programs for sustainability. This means that improvement in community participation is associated with improvement in sustainability of community ECD centres. The findings in this case show that community participation is relevant in the sustainability of community ECD centres.

Therefore, the relationship between community participation and sustainability of ECD centres is statistically significant hence rejecting the second hypothesis as well.

Summary of results

Regarding community participation and sustainability of ECD centres, what seems to emerge is as follows: most parents within the community take their children to private nursery schools; parents do not take their children to community ECD centres because of unqualified caregivers and low standards at the centre; the enrollment of pupils in most centres is low because of low standard at the centre; and use of unqualified caregivers; communities cannot be able to sustain ECD centres without the support of NGOs because parents are not cooperative; some centre management committee members are not allowed to make decisions while in some centres they are allowed and lastly, community participation influences most of the roles performed at the centre apart from improving pupil retention.

ROLE OF COMMUNITIES IN THE SUSTAINABILITY OF ECD CENTRES

The third objective was set to assess the role of communities in the sustainability of ECD centres using interviews conducted with parents, centre management committee members, caregivers and community development officers. The findings from the interviews are presented in line with the four headings and themes under each sub-heading namely: roles performed by parents at the centre; why communities are not fulfilling their roles; roles parents engage in voluntarily at the ECD centre and why the population of children is not growing at the established ECD centres.

Roles performed by parents at the centre

From the interviews conducted regarding the roles performed by parents at the centres, a number of themes emerged. These are presented below.

Theme 1: make contribution for children’s welfare.

Most of the respondents interviewed said that they contribute money which is used to buy food for children at the centre. One of the head caregivers confirmed that,

“Our parents contribute money to buy food for the children. We seat as a committee after the money has been to plan for the food items needed for the children.

However, some parents delay to fulfill their pledge and this in most cases affects our budget as planned. Other parents don’t even pay until the term ends.” She asserted. 

This means that all parents whose children study in that specific centre have to make a contribution towards their children’s welfare so that they do not study on empty stomachs. It’s also important to note that not all parents fulfill their pledges and this means that in the event that few parents have paid, the centre is likely to have food shortage which may lead to absenteeism of children from school.

Theme 2: Provision of security

The head of security and member of the centre management committee in his communication said,

It is our role in this community to provide security to the ccentre property since the property benefits both as as parents and our children who study in this centre. It is a collaborative effort with the community. So, everyone here is our eye and if anyone is seen carrying centre property our spies inform us and we arrest that person.” He confirmed to members.

This means that all parents within the community keep watch over and protect property as well as the safety of their children at the centre.

Theme 3: Taking and collecting children from the centre

One of the caregivers emphasized that.

“Whenever we are admitting children to this centre we make sure parents/guardians register with us. We get the details of both the parents and the child and the person who will be picking the child from the centre. We do not allow anyone we did not register to pick any child. Our parents whose children study from here are aware of about of this since there is a lot of kidnapping and poisoning of children by unknown people.” She concluded.

This means for security reasons it’s the very person who registered with the centre to take and pick the child from the centre. It is also possible that a neighbor may be able to pick a child if the centre is communicated to early.

Theme 4: Attending meetings

The respondents interviewed said that attending meetings is part of the parent’s responsibility. The chairperson of one of the centre management committee when asked whether they have meetings at the centre said,

“Yes, it is true we organize parents’ meetings every term and all parents are always invited. We make announcements at places of worship or sometimes inform them when they come to pick their children at the centre.  However, we have a very big challenge that when we call for a meeting, very few parents attend. Parents rarely attend but instead send their daughters or sons as representatives who do not even contribute in the meeting. This has affected the centre plans.” She said with concern.

This means that not all parents whose children study in these centres attend meetings yet their input during the meetings would help address certain concerns raised in the meeting.

Theme 5: Make renovations

It was noted from the interviews that parents are supposed to make renovations. This is what the Community Development Officer had to say.

In our agreement with communities, it is the parents’ role to make renovations. However, it is difficult to mobilize parents because most of them leave home very early and come back late at night. Since its voluntary work that that has no any money attached to it, which some parents openly comment. On the other hand, some parents pay their contribution which enables us to contract parents within the community to make renovations.

This means that it is through parents’ contribution that the centre management committee members contract other people to make renovations at the centre as it is practically impossible for someone to leave all his work and come to do centre work without any pay.

Theme 6: Contribute to staff salary

As a way of motivating staff, they have to be paid monthly salary. In line with this the caregiver said,

“I get monthly salary from the community development officer from the NGO that started this centre. It is basically the Child Fund that is responsible for paying me. The centre management committee held a meeting with the Community development officer representative and in charge of this centre to see avenues of raising staff salary. The NGO had earlier on suggested that one other role of the parents was to contribute to staff salary. However, this did not yield fruits. I remember I was in that meeting. Parents openly told the community development officer that they will not be able to raise monthly salary for caregiver. They only accepted to provide labour but not committing themselves to paying staff monthly salary.”

This means that if NGOs stopped paying staff salaries the centre would automatically collapse because there would be no one to pay caregivers.

Why are communities not fulfilling their roles?

This statement was asked to get some of the reasons why parents fail to fulfill some of the roles assigned to them at the centre. Their responses are highlighted in theme 7, 8, 9 and 10 respectively.

Theme 7: They go to work

According to various respondents, parents do not fulfill their roles at the centre because most of them leave in the morning to go to work. For instance, one of the parents who happens to be a fish monger said,

“I don’t want to talk on behalf of other parents because we do different jobs. I am a fish monger. I leave in the very early to go to the landing site to buy fish. There after I come back riding my bicycle while looking for customers. Even my child who is studying at the centre it’s one of the siblings who collects her from the centre. It is through selling fish that I am able to pay rent and sustain my family. If I don’t go to work it means my family will not have food and other basic needs and there will be money for rent.” He talked with concern.

This means that parents are not just refusing to fulfill their roles but they too have other commitments in their families that make them busy.

Theme 8: We are busy

Other parents stated that, “It is not good to load parents with all most all the centre activities;

“As parents, we also have to run our businesses to make ends meet on daily basis. So, it is incorrect for the initiators of these centres to leave parents to be fully responsible for the daily running of the centre.”   

Another female parent also further stated that,

“How do you expect me to work at the centre the whole day without any pay then I go back home empty handed? I thought NGOs come to support the needy and why do you expect us to contribute what we do not have? One parent wondered, I cannot go to work at the centre and leave to concentrate on my business that brings income to the family and fees for elder children.” She concluded.  

Similarly, one of the widows added that,

I am the only bread winner in my family ever since my husband passed on. Some of my children have dropped out of school because of lack of fees. They have now joined me in my small business that keeps us moving and paying fees for the young children including one at the ECD centre. I cannot add another extra load on what I have. Our Uganda today needs each one to struggle for his/her family first before you start helping others.

This means that parents have many challenges in their families that they wouldn’t feel like again to have more stressing issues and leave their own problems unsolved.

Theme 9: NGOs started it and they should fund it

One of the elders with concern wanted guidance from the funders of the programme. This is what he said,

“It is not easy to build on someone’s ideology. For example, as parents, we interpret the idea of ECD centre differently. While it is a good idea to involve parents, we also feel that by the time the programme was passed and implemented there was a budget and timeframe. These programmes in most cases are established to help the needy. So, why do they again turn around and expect parents to contribute” To me the NGOs should start and complete what they started and if it collapses, parents find their way elsewhere with another organisation.”

This means although the NGOs are there to provide services to the needy, they do not have the capacity to provide each and everything needed for running centre activities. It is one way of empowering parents to take one some roles at the centre although parents seem not to be in support of them taking on the programms when NGOs withdraw their support.

Theme 10: it is NGOs responsibility to provide everything

In line with theme 9, it was also observed that NGOs are there to provide everything to the ECD centres. The Local Council (LC 1) noted that,

“The challenge I have seen with parents in this community is parents think the NGOs are there to provide everything. To them they think that any NGO that comes around to their community comes with the plan to benefit the community members through sponsoring their children. Others begin to doubt some programmes established withing the community especially when the NGO touches on anything to do with cost sharing. So, to them they believe that any NGO that comes around should be able to fund each and everything forgetting that some programme are established for the community to take over at a certain point of time. This is what our parents are not aware of and possibly need to be sensitized on how established programs can be owned by community when funders withdraw their support.’ He commented.

From the LCI’s conclusion, it means that not every NGO that establishes a progamme in the community comes with the aim of extorting money from parents but there are some programmes that are established by NGOs with the aim of handing it over to the community once the structures have been fully established with parents fully engaged in the running of activities at the centre.  It also means that indeed there are also some fake NGOs that extort money from parents that makes parents fear engaging in any programme set up by some unknown NGOs.

What role do parents engage in voluntarily at the ECD centre

This question was asked to find out whether there are roles that community members engage in freely without being reminded by the centre management committee members or the community development officer. Their responses are reflected in theme 11 below.

Theme 11: Making bricks for construction of the centre

It was discovered that parents voluntarily make bricks for the construction of the centre. This they said happens at the initial stages when a serious Ngo comes to the community with it was discovered that parents voluntarily make bricks for the construction of the centre at its initial stages. One of the former chairman management committee said,

It is true parents always give support to the programme that comes to give services to our community. For instance, Child Fund now called Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) came to this very community with district officials. They educated us on the purpose of the centre and our role as parents. One of the roles for parents was to make bricks. I personally gave my “muvule” tree for burning the bricks. Those who could not get time contributed some little money which was used for buying food and some little token for the people who made the bricks.

This means that parents have some roles they perform voluntarily to support the programme without asking for any pay because they know the value of centre to their community.

Theme 12: Taking care of children at the centre

It was established that at times some of the community members always volunteer to take care of children at the centre especially in times when crisis of a trained caregiver. One of the caregivers who is a volunteer to work at the centre before she finally got employed by the funder of the programme said,

“I started working in this centre as a volunteer for one year. This was during my vacation of S.4. My parents lacked money for me to join a course. So, I volunteered to work at the centre. The caregiver I found here was earning salary because she had her had trained and had her qualifications as a caregiver. I volunteered because I could see her alone struggling with children yet the centre had just started.

However, I finally got trained and now hold a Certificate in Community Child Care (CCC) sponsored by Ministry of Education and Sports.” She informed the researcher.

This means that some of the caregivers started working as volunteers without qualification and later enrolled for certificate course but being sponsored by either Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) or the organization itself.

The Local Council 1 vice chairman added that,

“When it comes to recruiting qualified caregivers for the centre, it is entirely the community development officers (CDO) alongside other technical people from the district who handle that exercise. we only look for the person to take care of the children when there is a crisis. for instance, the caregiver has fallen sick or when the caregiver finds a better paying job with private nursery schools.” He confirmed.

This confirms that some community ECD centres have unqualified caregivers and train them on job as they go for in-service training in established ECD training institutions.  it also means that the standard in ECD centres is low compared to private nursery schools since some of the caregivers leave and join private nursery schools.

Theme 14: Too much work overload

Edith, a caregiver in one of the centres noted that they have a lot to do at the centre which includes preparing porridge in case the cook is absent, as you attend to children in class.   This is what she had to say,

There is a lot of work at the centre. For example, sometimes when my co-caregiver is absent, I am forced to combine all children in one class. It becomes very difficult to handle them when they are combined. This makes me very tired at the end of the day because I have to prepare different work for different age range (Baby, Middle and Top class), prepare porridge when the cook is absent, attend to parents among others. go back home when I am tired and worn out. But I love working with children” She narrated.    

This means that there few caregivers in ECD centres which make them to multi-task even in areas where they are not competent in without room for resting. Consequently, it leads to sub-standard services as a result of burnout.

Theme 15: Under staffing

The head caregiver admitted that the standard is low compared to private nursery schools but attributed it to few staff members

“As a head caregiver, I do many things while I am at the centre. For example, I teach as well as performing administrative roles. When a parent comes, I have to leave class first and attend to him/her. The NGO pays salary for only two employees. The rest like the cook and the guard are supposed to be paid by the parents, which sometimes does not happen. Most of our parents are poor. Those who can afford don’t bring their children here. They take them to private schools. Too much workload makes us not to cover what we had planned to cover in a term. As a head caregiver, I sometimes give the cook and guard some money from my own pocket. It is really hard but I am trying my best to convince parents to fulfill their roles as agreed so that part of the money can be used to recruit more caregivers.” The head caregiver concluded.  

This means that caregivers in most cases fail to complete the content planned for a term because of various activities they are tasked with at the centre hence low standard.

Summary of results

From the results regarding the role of communities in the sustainability of ECD centres, for all the 15 themes the major responsibilities revolved around: making contributions for children’s welfare; taking and collecting children from the centre, making renovations in addition to attending meetings and making contribution to staff salary.

Regarding communities not fulfilling their roles, what seems to come out is that: parents go to work and that they are ever busy; NGOs started it and they should fund it; it is NGOs responsibility to provide each and everything in the centre.

In as far as the roles off parents engage in voluntarily, the results seem to point out the following: making brick for construction and taking and picking their children from the centre.

Regarding low enrollment at the centre, what seems to come out include the following: low standard at the centre too much work and under staffing.