Introduction: Despite empirical evidence on the positive correlation of parents__ampersandsignrsquo; involvement and early education of children, research shows that there is a lack of parental involvement in South Africa. Objective: This study sought the perceptions of university students on the challenges faced by children whose fathers are unable to participate in their early education. Method: A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study with a sample of 300 university students in Eastern Cape-based University. A 16-item questionnaire titled __ampersandsignldquo;Challenges Faced by Children Questionnaire__ampersandsignrdquo; was used for data collection. An internal consistency reliability index of the items of the instrument is 0.86. Data collected were analysed using mean and analysis of variance. Results: The findings of the study revealed that the challenges faced by children whose fathers are uninvolved in their early education include poor intellectual, behavioural and social development among others. Conclusion: South African children whose fathers do not participate in their early education face a lot of difficulties which hinder that their educational development.