ASSESSMENT OF APPROPRIATENESS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRES IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the appropriateness of early childhood centres in southwestern Nigeria. This is with the ultimate view to determining the responsiveness of early childhood education programme to children developmental needs in southwestern Nigeria. The study employed survey research design. The population consisted of children between the ages 3 and 5, their parents as well as preschool teachers in southwestern Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure and simple random sampling techniques were used in selecting 1,080 pupils, 1,080 parents and 108 pre-school teachers as the sample size for the study. One instrument was used for this study namely school Developmentally Appropriate Practices Environmental Rating Scale SDAP- ER. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and Pearson product moment correlation. Result showed that early childhood centres were not found to be developmentally appropriate based on staffing, as 99.9% of early childhood education teachers had no early childhood education training whatsoever. School environment and school facilities were only 47.8% and 40.0% developmentally appropriate respectively. The study concluded that assessment of Appropriateness of early childhood centres is vital to the life of the youngsters and all-round development in early childhood centres in Southwestern Nigeria.