AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION STYLES OF EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (ECD) CENTERS: A CASE OF HARARE METROPOLITAN PROVINCE, ZIMBABWE.

The study sought to assess the effectiveness of management and administration styles of early childhood development centers: A case Harare Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe. The focus of the study was on the school heads, deputy heads and teachers in charge of early childhood centers within the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. Mixed methodology was utilized, purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were used. The representative sample of the study consisted of fifteen (15) respondents/participants who included both female and male school heads, deputy heads, and teachers. Research design was a case study design that guided the research methodology. Data collection was done using the interview schedule guide, questionnaires, observations and document analysis. The research participants consisted of males and females, who were all working in the education sector. Key findings from the study included reflective learning to early childhood development (ECD) leadership; integrated leadership; and early childhood development (ECD) perceptions to leadership. Recommendations from the study included: the community should come in more strongly together with the monitoring and evaluation framework for early childhood development (ECD) centres to ease the challenge of exploiting children and parents; the administrators (school heads, deputy heads, and teachers in charge of ECD centers) need to be trained and inducted on the proper management of the ECDE processes and procedures and government should take full responsibility of early childhood development centers to avoid burdening parents alone.