SCHOOL FACILITIES AS PREDICTOR OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SKILLS: A CASE STUDY OF EKITI STATE

Abstract

This paper investigates how school facilities predicts preschool children's social skills in Ekiti State. The study was guided by two objectives which assessed the availability of school facilities in Ekiti State and examine the influence of school facilities on preschool children's social skills. These were raised into one research question and formulated into two hypotheses and these were: what are the available facilities in preschool in Ekiti State; there is no significant relationship between school learning corners and preschool social skills; there is no significant relationship between outdoor facilities and pre-school social skills. The study adopted descriptive survey research method and the target population for the study was all the preschool and preschool teachers in Ekiti State out of which twenty-five (25) schools and fifty (50) pre-school teachers were randomly selected. Two instruments were used for the study namely Checklist on Available School Facilities (CASF) and Questionnaire on School Facilities Influence on Preschool Social Skills (QSFIPSS). Frequency count and simple percentage were used to analyse the research question while the hypotheses were tested using 2 Pearson Correlation and Chi-square (x ). The analysis of result (r = 0.394, p <0.05) revealed that: there was a significant positive correlation between school learning corners and preschool social skills, there was a significant positive correlation between outdoor facilities and preschool social skills. The study concluded that learning corners are very crucial to socialization of preschoolers and it correlated with the social skills development of preschool children. Availability of school facilities played a great role in developing and furnishing social skills among preschool children. Conducive and well developed school playing ground are needed and vital in establishing team work, interaction among others as a way of creating and reinforcing pre-school social skills. The researcher recommended that preschool centres and classes should be equipped with adequate and attractive school facilities so that each lesson can be taken with suitable and productive facilities that will reinforce social skills of the preschool children.