The purpose of this research was to study the opinions toward self and task performance in childcare centres as perceived by caregivers under the jurisdiction of the Local Administrative Organization. The four areas evaluated were caregiver characteristics, task performance, objectives of caregiving and educating young children and problems and obstacles at work. The sample comprised 885 caregivers from 74 provinces in four regions of Thailand who were surveyed using a questionnaire consisting of five sections based on the research framework. Caregivers were predominantly female (98.6%), 34 years old on average and had a bachelor's degree in education (40.8%) or in-service training (89.9%) in early childhood education. Caregivers perceived that their personality, teaching preparation, method of teaching, human relations and supervision of children during lunch and play were good. They rated their teaching and regular appraisal of children's progress as "medium". Also, at the medium level were activities such as cooking food, planting food and providing parent orientation during the school year. Activities which were not rated highly were raising animals (48.2%) and planning the school curriculum (45.8%). The most frequently ranked objectives in care and educating young children were whole child development (19.27%), promoting morality and ethics (13.20%), children's self care daily activities (12.81%), communicating with and helping parents who work during the day (12.41%) and developing children in the community (9.58%). Problems and obstacles identified were an inadequate budget and unsuitable buildings ([X-bar] = 3.28). Pollution ([X-bar] = 1.20) was seen as the least of the caregivers' problems, perhaps because it was not rated as impacting on the performance of caregivers' duties or children's health. (Contains 3 tables.)