HOW TO START AND MANAGE PRESCHOOL IN GHANA

Managing a school is one of the most profitable ventures to operate as an entrepreneur. Like most businesses operating a school requires passion and in this case passion for kids. Although most entrepreneurs open schools without directly getting involved in its daily operations preschools thus day-care and nursery are different since the pupils involved are infant and toddlers who need maximum attention.

A school is described by Cambridge dictionary as a place where children go to be educated. This education goes beyond academic as it’s the formative stage of a child’s life. A research conductive by California Department of Education in 2000 indicates that choosing quality care that is in a healthy and safe environment should be our priority as such we should look for childcare that stimulates and encourage the child’s physical, intellectual and social growth as each child has its own personality and responds to care givers or experiences differently.

Day-care which is the popular name for preschool and nursery in Ghana according to Collins dictionary is a place or business offering childcare for working parents. Gone were the days when most women were housewives hence had all the time to raise their little ones till they were ready for kindergarten. Now most mothers are working and therefore must take their infants to school after resuming work after their maternity leave.

HOW TO START
Before you start a day-care you must have approval from social welfare and district assembly which are the regulators of these centres .It’s also prudent to have a short training on infants and in Ghana you could have it from National Nursery Teachers Training Centre and the Montessori centres. Like every other business its appropriate to register the business thus if you want to grow. You can start by offering a typical preschool thus from 3 months to 24months and in this case you can start from home if your environment is conducive and spacious to accommodate the kids. Usually these kinds of centre’s are around corporate offices were working mothers could leave their infants and visit during lunch break. There are lots of day-care and nursery around but in other to stand out you must make the environment welcoming for parents to trust you with their kids. Its important to have the various toys, cradle, bouncers and modern playthings infants and babies need to feel at home.
Most day-care provides meals and its appropriate to learn the various meals infants take especially during the weaning period. These infants are tender hence its appropriate to have quality staff who have undergone training on how to handle these little ones. Recording of parents contact, health history of the kids is key for effective management. It’s also
necessary to have a recording of daily activities of the kids thus eating times, sleeping and poo-poo times.
Owners can enquire from their local polyclinics if its possible to have the routine monthly checks on the infants what is popular called weighing .So that parents can keep the child health records presented by MOH with the school .This if implemented would help mothers a lot due to the stress they go through during this time of the month. Its advisable to have a good teacher pupil ratio for all these little ones to have maximum care.

MARKETING
You could use social media to advertise your business. Visiting churches in the locality and talking to mothers and Sunday school teachers is also a medium of advertising. If you leave in an estate, you could visit homes and neighbourhood meetings to talk about your school.
Weekend drop off ; where kids from other school could be cared for on Saturdays at a fee whiles offering other services such as homework assistance, piano lessons, French and reading classes is also profitable. This is also a form of marketing since parents may eventually like the services and may enrol their kids in your school.

CONCLUSION
The joy of every parent is to see their kids happy and well educated hence when good care is offered referral is assured .The school business with day-care inclusive is very lucrative however its important to create profitability by offering quality education.