Quality of Pre-School Teacher Education in Ethiopia and its Implication for Quality Learning Outcomes

This study looks at the quality of preschool teacher education in Ethiopia in view of three basic components: curriculum relevance, profiles of teacher educators, and the selection and recruitment of candidates. The study adopted a case study design guided by competency-based teacher development theory and collected data through documentary analysis (the curriculum and recruitment guideline), and interviews of five professionals. The findings showed that the preschool teacher education curriculum has alignment gaps in four major aspects: (a) the preschool teacher education curriculum focused on subject area contents rather than on holistic child development, (b) the preschool teacher education curriculum overlooked motor skills as well as socio-emotional development categories, and (c) languages of instructions at preschool teacher education and preschool level are different (English and mother tongue respectively). Besides, invited professionals from other departments offer 36 of the 42 courses but lacked appropriate professional orientation and experiences to prepare the less capable candidates admitted to the program. Accordingly, policy intervention to make appropriate amendments in the curriculum, staff profiles and practicum components, and further research on views of graduates and relevant stakeholders were identified as areas of further endeavors.