The paper further finds that preschools following the

The paper further finds that preschools following the child centered, activity based
strategies advocated by ECCD experts and developmentally appropriate curricula were to be
in minority. Many preschools were reported to teach the curricula taught in primary schools
of Sri Lanka, than a one suitable for pre-primary aged children. Thus, reviewed curricula
contained formal instructions in reading, writing and arithmetic (WBG, 2014). Further,
grouping according to age categories for appropriate activities do not seems to be the popular
or the majority’s practice with children participating in activities as whole class (Wijetunge,
2003). The paper opinions that this may cause more damage than good in the minds of young
children, going against the recommended best practice guidelines of the Child Friendly
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Development Centers (MCDWA, 2006) and can be detrimental to young children's ‟
education and development.
6. Children construct their own knowledge. Their learning depends on the quality of the
environment provided to them, and on their engagement in planning, participating and
evaluating their own learning.
Quality child care has many features. A profound indicator impacting quality child
care is the teacher-child ratio. Even though it is limited to a single aspect of quality, preschool
teacher-to-child ratios give a quantitative indication of the frequency of contacts between
teachers and children. Globally, regulations specifying the child-to-preschool teacher ratio
typically increase with the age of children. According to the OECD Family Database (2010)
certified teacher-to-child ratios are calculated by dividing the number of full-time equivalent
children enrolled in pre-school programs by the number of full-time equivalent teachers at
that level. Centre for Research in Early Childhood(CREC) (2013) reports that there is a large
variation on the staff: child ratios, from 1:6 to 1:24 with the smallest number of preschool
children to a teacher being found in Sweden and The Netherlands. According to this report
the highest number of children to a teacher is reported in countries such as China, Singapore
and France. The MCDWA (2006) guidelines recommend the child: preschool teacher ratio to
be 20: 1. Moreover, based on the figures listed in the MCDWA survey (MCDWA, 2010) the
present paper calculated preschool teacher, child ratio in Sri Lankan preschools to be 1:22.
This figure seems to be slightly than the teacher, child ratio (1: 18) in the Sri Lankan
government schools (MoE, 2016). Thus, considering the significance of the lower teacher,
child ratios, in maintaining quality teacher, child interactions; the paper recommends the
concerned authorities to Maintain preschool teacher, child ratio to be in the range of global standards for
middle income countries.