A study of teacher awareness and practices on the safety of teaching aids used for pre-school children in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Background: Using teaching aids for pre-school children is crucial for promoting a child's holistic development, enhancing classroom interactivity and delivering high-quality lesson content. Ensuring the child's safety during the use of teaching aids in the teaching-learning process is significant. Despite the widespread adoption of numerous teaching aids, there is a deficiency of systematic attention to protection measures and safety standards in pre-school education settings. While the research on the protection of pre-school children in relation to teaching aids is globally existing but locally extremely limited. The main objective of this study is to assess and enhance their awareness of protection and safety awareness of regulations on teaching aids. Method: A total of 78 pre-school teachers were randomly selected from the Colombo district for this survey study. Missing and neutral responses were excluded from the data list. A pilot and validated questionnaires with a 5-point Likert scale were distributed to participants. Alpha value is 0.715. Descriptive statistics consist of frequency distribution and graphic presentation, which were utilized to represent demographic data and summarize responses of teachers in relation to teachers' perceptions of safety awareness on teaching aids. Results: Chi-square test tests were conducted to analyze responses by sector, educational qualifications, ethnicity, income level of teachers to determine whether these variables influence the responses ( (r=0.8; P<0.01). The findings reveal that the current teacher awareness of safety guidelines and regulations on teaching aids is considerably satisfactory, but they face challenges such as limited, insufficient training on using digital teaching aids safely, the government and responsible authorities not offering high-quality teaching aids and limited time for monitoring and maintaining teaching aids safely. Conclusions: The study recommends enhancing professional training on safe use and maintaining teaching aids, strengthening government support, and increasing adequate funding for pre-school classroom infrastructure. Also, incorporating safety awareness guidelines into teacher guides.