eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics 2328-7292 2013-12-23 1 6 128 133 10.12691/ajams-1-6-4 AJAMS2013164 article Evidence S. Matangi evidence_matangi@yahoo.com 1 Adwell Mhlanga 1 Phoebe Kashora 2 Jenneth Musiyiwa 3 Tendai Chakarisa 4 Department of Statistics, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe Department of Communication Skills, Women's University in Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe Department of ECD, Women's University in Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe Child Sensitive Social Policies Department, Women's University in Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe This research seeks to investigate perceptions of student teachers on nurseries and housemaids on Early Childhood Development (ECD). Six factors were extracted on nurseries and five were extracted for housemaids accounting for almost the same amount of variance. The main factor for nurseries functionary importance in ECD was stimulation of the mental and social emphasis of the children; and for housemaids it was on the moral development of the children and their complimentary role to nurseries. Housemaids were more paramount in ECD in terms of their ability to fill in for time-poor parents unlike nurseries due to the varying financial requirements, they were also more flexible on the space requirements for children's development. Overall, factor analysis was more pronounced for the perceptions on housemaids than nurseries on ECD, which suggest the presence of extraneous variables especially economic ones that influence more the latter's viability than the former. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajams/1/6/4/ajams-1-6-4.pdf early child developmenthousemaidslinear combinationsnurseriesperception