An expert warns against early childhood admission in boarding schools

PARENTS and prospective child care givers in the country have been warned against sending their children to primary boarding schools at an early age preferably between 3 and 8 years because of some psychological effects that might develop within the minds of such children, an expert in childhood education has said. A senior lecturer in the department of psychology and curriculum studies at the School of Education of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) Professor Akundaeli Mbise said in an exclusive interview early this week in Dar es Salaam that, at such an earlier age, children needs to receive their parental care as this is the basic elementary knowledge needed for them prior to maturity. Prof. Mbise who has specialized in early childhood educational career noted that, sending children at such an early age denies them basic rights which they should earlier be given by their parents for social, physical and intellectual stimulation before are taken to school.  In view of this, however he has strongly cautioned that, children’s admissions into primary boarding schools at such an age have a negative effect that is likely to lead them to emotional growth. “Sending children to boarding schools under 8 years means you are separating them from their parents as most of them becomes frustrated emotionally”. He said adding that, they get distressed emotionally a situation that eventually develops low sense of attachment from their parents’ care. Elaborating further he noted that, children loose parental warmth which could make them know who exactly are their parents, they also develop negative behaviors due to lack of cooperation among them which arises as a result of bullying that sometimes develop fear feelings among them.  Elaborating the effects of sending children to schools for class one admission at an early age and not in a boarding school he noted that, at a normal circumstances the attitude has positive outcome as there will have no any bad effects if trained properly at school as early teachings gives them confidence to work hard in order to maintain high learning achievements. He explained that, early childhood education which is recommended for mentally development at between 5 and 7 years old has also been much more social when they meet fellow children at the school. Social behavior becomes more cooperative among them and more easily and also they support one another in different matters. The normal childhood education in Tanzania is mixed up with principal education whereby primary school teachers teach children how to count and read. But as for the development of children this is not enough as teachers may also use numbers for everyday home environments. According to Prof. Mbise this is to develop pre-reading which prepares them into a stage whereby once sent to start standard one, should not be in difficult. To do that, he added, teachers requires preparing well materials for them. Commenting on the fee structure charge by private schools in the country, Prof. Mbise noted that, there should be a regulator to control this in order to let every student be able to afford it for all including other expenses charged. In this manner however, he noted that the government would be in a position of grading their standards that students would know the types of services they provide.