International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE) Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2023, pp. 180~185 ISSN: 2252-8822, DOI: 10.11591/ijere.v12i1.23934  180 Journal homepage: http://ijere.iaescore.com Leadership role in promoting childhood education: Perception of practitioners in Pakistan Syed Jawad Zareen Shah 1 , Muhammad Imran Yousuf 1 , Muhammad Imran 1 , Muhammad Hanif 2 1 Department of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan 2 Department of Statistics, Faculty of Sciences, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Feb 13, 2022 Revised Sep 8, 2022 Accepted Oct 3, 2022 Early childhood care and education (ECCE) is a significant stage to develop responsible generations. Holistic child development may be possible through a plan of early childhood education (ECE) and early learning. This study is planned to explore the role of school leadership in promoting ECCE in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan. This research study may play a significant role in sensitizing the educationist, practitioners, pedagogical leadership in early learning centers, and political leadership. The study was quantitative in nature. In the first step, a stratified sampling technique was used to select the districts among the three divisions of AJK. In the second step, a simple random sampling technique was used. Self-developed a five- point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data. The study concluded that leadership plays a significant role in promoting ECCE. It is encouraging that educational leadership involves parents in the process of teaching-learning. Learners are happy in the school activities, and academic leadership is planning to minimize the workload of kids. It is recommended that children may be facilitated with better infrastructure. Keywords: Early learners ECCE Leadership Practitioners School leadership This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Syed Jawad Zareen Shah Department of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, Pir Meher Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Shamsabad, Muree Road, Punjab, Rawalpindi, Pakistan Email: jawadgardezi55@gmail.com 1. INTRODUCTION Early learning plays a vital role in human life. Researchers concluded that those children who enrolled in early learning programs have a significant difference in social behaviors [1]. It is being reported that three major areas, including acceptable behaviors, social interactions, and emotional stability, were found to be positive and strengthened among those children who did attend the early learning programs. Additionally, it was reported that children with poor socioeconomic backgrounds are not ready to join the schools. Children may be more cooperative if they play with equipment relevant to their age group in a planned system like a daycare center or early learning institute [2]. It is assumed that practitioners who are part of education need to have soft skills so that they may promote these skills among the children, more specifically at early learning centers or schools [3]. These practitioners should have intellectual, emotional, and social skills to impart these to early childhood education (ECE) level students. Leadership within early learning centers or institutes is one of the significant in hand issues to be explored and discussed [4]. Early learning leadership needs to provide quality services to the children, including a caring environment, and a safe place to learn the skills and work collaboratively with the other critical stakeholders of such centers. It was claimed that most countries are making investments in early learning to make and shape their future. Leadership at early learning institutes is a holistic process and work. Like other experts, in this research, it is claimed that leaders in early childhood care and education (ECCE)