Author's Name:	Virginia Hope Mawere, Dr Kennedy Andrew Thomas & Prof. Leonora Tendai Nyaruwata
Subject Area:	Social Science and Humanities
Subject	Education
Section	Case Studies

Early Childhood Development, Parent Involvement, Partnership and Collaboration

The study was designed to evaluate the nature of parental involvement in the ECD programme. The evaluation focused on why, how and what challenges parents meet in being involved in the ECD programme. The descriptive research design was used because the researchers could describe in detail what was found in the field. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select 5 schools in Kuwadzana high density suburb in Harare district and involved 10 parents who were randomly selected from these schools (2 parents from each school). A questionnaire, face to face interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data which was analysed using tables and percentages. The study found out that parents are rarely involved in ECD programmes. The major reason being that teachers do not know how to involve the parents and some parents have no time to visit schools since most of them are working although they know the meaning and importance of their being involved in the education of their children. The study recommended that the education personnel need to be educated on how and why they should involve parents in the early years of their children?s education to ensure that the children receive appropriate care and that their development is enhanced.