An investigation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on traditional operations of Early Childhood Development Practitioners in Diepsloot, Gauteng Province

Abstract

COVID-19 virus was initially detected late in 2019, in Wuhan, China. COVID-19 continued to spread relentlessly, it then necessitated the World Health Organisation (WHO) to characterize it as a pandemic and emphasised the gravity of the situation so that the countries could put measures in place in place to curb the scourge of this new vicious pandemic. The Early Childhood Centres (ECDs) were among the services that were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. It is therefore against this background that this study was conducted to investigate the impact that COVID-19 had on the traditional operations of ECD practitioners (Early Childhood educators). To gather data, the researcher used a qualitative research method. Ten (10) participants were purposively sampled from the population of ECD Practitioners who were employees in the ECD sector pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected through focus group discussion; field notes and recordings were taken. A thematic analysis was used to analyse and interpret the data collected. Theoretically, the study is informed by the Systems Theory and Person-in-environment approach (PIE). The main findings discovered are that; transitioning from face-to-face learning to online learning happened haphazardly with minimal resources, and no training was provided. The COVID-19 pandemic brought so much distress into the lives of ECD practitioners at a professional level and increased the workload with minimal resources. It is recommended that an emergency/disaster framework be developed and creating a hybrid teaching system for both classroom and technological environment is recommended.