Early childcare, education and spatial planning approaches to addressing urban built space challenges of preschool infrastructure in Addis Ababa

Viewing interfaces as collective role of urban spatial planning and early childcare education approach, the study documents urban built space challenges of preschools in the context of rapid urbanization. It aims at identifying policy, institutional and practice gaps in addressing preschool infrastructure, education, and early childhood care policy implementation in Addis Ababa. A case study of private and public pre-schools was considered. A qualitative design was used to collect data from secondary and primary sources. Data on pre-school policies, practices, regulations, and data on implementation were collected. Key informant interviews were used to collect primary data, including the perspectives of policy-makers and implementers. The thematic data analysis revealed that, urban planning lacks a detail working plan at local level that can be translated to action in addressing the challenges of preschools. The spatial plan and education policy do not incorporate early childhood care and education infrastructure demands of the preschools observed. Thus, policy and institutional gaps need to be recognized and addressed to solve the challenges of preschool infrastructure and to create a conducive space for early childhood education in Addis Ababa.