COMPLETION REPORT
Dr. NISA JAMES
Cochin University of Science and Technology

Early Childhood Education in Japan and India:
A Comparative and Comprehensive Evaluation Using Total Quality Management Approach
Early childhood education (ECE) is a stage where quality of education and its pedagogy needs to be ensured with
continuous improvement as the importance of early childhood education for the cognitive and social/behaviour
development of children is widely recognized. Discrete studies on early childhood education (ECE) have overlooked
the importance of a comprehensive evaluation of its quality. This study attempted to understand ECE from thetheoretical lens of TQM and has developed a preliminary model to evaluate the holistic performance of ECE withTQM principles. ECE in India (Kerala) and Japan (Tokyo) were studied for a multi-country evaluation. The study
was conducted among selected preschools in Kerala and Tokyo. Data was collected through discussions with school
teachers / Preschool managers / coordinators / Principals. The parents of the students from the schools in Kerala also
served as respondents. The major objective of the study was to identify and prioritize the critical factors of Total
Quality Management system in early childhood education and also present them through a model, based on EFQM.
By referring to existing literature and discussion with experts the main ECE quality led factors are identified. The
five selected factors are Teacher’s quality, Administration quality, Parent’s involvement, Physical environment andAcademic results. AHP is used to prioritize the critical factors in ECE. The priority levels of critical factors ofstakeholders are tabulated. Results are presented through the EFQM framework. This model is divided into twoparts, Enablers and results. Enablers are the critical factors that are identified from the AHP analysis. Results are theoutcome of the adoption of continuous improvement practices based on the critical factors identified in this study.
Thus, in ECE, children should be exposed to a real-world phase where they can play, learn and live in a peacefulenvironment. Equipments should be arranged considering the age and preference of children to facilitate independentand exploratory experience. For example, toddlers need to interact with their environment in a physical way,
experiencing everything with their primary senses, more acts and less talk, therefore the environment they areexposed to should be appealing to their characteristics. In primary school setting, parents are considered to be more
important than teachers. The children up to 8 years depend upon their parents for almost everything. Parents are thefirst teachers of every child and they know what their children really need. Study finds that the most widely andeffectively used instrument for assessing ECE quality is The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale –Revised(ECERS-R) (Harms, Clifford and Cryer, 1998) for both research and educational settings (Sakai, Whitebook,Wishard and Howes, 2003). However, it is not used in the ECE settings where the study was carried out. Hence asuggestion is to make use of such evaluation tools to examine both structural and process quality of ECE. Also,
parental involvement, child-teacher interaction, teacher quality and the physical environment needs more emphasis
to ensure continuous improvement and quality in ECE.

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Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
James, N. & Sruthi, P.T. (2021). A Preliminary Model for Quality Management in Early Childhood Education.
International Conference on Commerce, Management & Interdisciplinary Subjects (ICCMIS), Central
University of Kerala. October 28-29.

Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Research article titled “A Preliminary Model for Quality Management in Early Childhood Education” is underreview in the journal “Voice of Teachers”, published by the National Council of Educational Research andTraining ( NCERT ), India.

Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)-2/2-