Nigeria

Interesting article - especially the language. It is always amazing to me how we are not too far from some of the problems in countries so far from our own especially in teacher training.

Vanguard online
Govt's Involvement in Pre-primary Education Threatens EFA Goals
By Olubusuyi Adenipekun
Posted to the Web: Thursday, January 05, 2006

The passive involvement of the Federal Government in Early Childhood Education (ECE), otherwise known as pre-primary education poses a great obstacle to the attainment of Education For All (EFA) goals.

This is so because this abysmally low government’s participation in proprietorship of day care centres and nursery schools deny the poor, the disadvantaged and marginalised groups access to ECE. Investigations have revealed that while government agencies provide a paltry 10 per cent of ECE educational services, individuals and religious bodies constitute the largest proprietorship of ECE. Yet, it is the foundation for a life-long education, being an integral part of basic education.

A very vivid way in which government looks the other way on ECE is its failure to ensure the use of mother tongue or the language of the immediate community as the medium of instruction at pre-primary educational level, which is what the National Policy on Education stipulates.

Instead, English language is most widely used, for instance by pre-primary school teachers. The responsibility of training of adequate number of pre-primary school teachers is also that of the government. But it has not been alive to this duty, with the result that children between ages one and five, who attend the ECE, are being taught by unqualified personnel.

According to the Senior Programme Officer of Enhance, an Abuja based non-governmental organisation, Dr Benedicta Agusiobo, many proprietors and teachers of pre-schools do not have knowledge or qualifications in the area of early childhood education.

Indeed, many proprietors go into daycare or nursery school business with the misconception that they do not need any special training. Government has not also made a decisive impact in the area of resource items provision for ECE/preprimary schools. Items such as toys/dolls are important for children’s intellectual development. As a result, learning for them becomes problematic. The subsisting policy of non-interference by government has also robbed early childhood schools in the country of general guidelines and standards of operation, which would have improved the quality of services they render.

It is in recognition of this gap that propelled UNESCO to undertake the development of guidelines on norms and standards for Early Childhood Centres (ECC) in Nigeria. Even, the distribution of these materials leaves much to be desired as several centres have neither got them nor set their eyes on the curriculum let alone being trained in their use. And to worsen the matter, the centres are left to operate without any supervision by government officials.

Yet, the rationale for investing in Early Childhood Education is very strong. And it is in pursuit of this need that goaded many international organisations to take concrete steps towards improving early childcare education. For example, the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of children in 1990 undertook a joint commitment to make an urgent universal appeal to every child a better future.

Also, the World Conference Education for All (EFA) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasise urgent priority to ensure access to and improve the quality of education for all children.

Eight reasons given at these fora in support of the provision affordable, quality programmes of early child care that are community based, and which is linked with health care and nutrition as part of an integrated approach to meeting the needs of the young child include the followings:

1. From conception to six years of age, children, according to research findings, undergo rapid mental, social and physical development to the extent that by the age of six, their brains would have developed to almost the size of an adult.

2. The convention on the rights of the child stipulates that children have a right to live and develop to their full capacity.

3. Moral and social values postulate that through children, societies pass on values and culture from generation to generation.

4. Supporting the development of the child physically and mentally leads to increased enrolment, improves performance and the society generally.

5. Provision of early child care facilities offer equal opportunities to children from both the privileged anddisadvantaged homes.

6. A programme in early childhood development should be used as an entry point for other developmental activities which will benefit the entire community.

7. ECC project should be linked with other developmental activities for women, nutrition, health, water and sanitation.

8. There is a growing demand for better ways of caring for children through an ECC project given the advancement in science and technology which now ensures the survival of many more children, thereby increasing population growth.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has however utilized the opportunities offered by advancement in science and technology to cater for its children. In this regard, it has successfully implemented the Integrated and Development (ICHD) and the Primary Health Care (PHC) programmes which help in reducing child mortality rates and ensure the survival and promotion of other efforts geared towards development.

The successful implementation o the ICHD and PHC served as fillip for government to make further efforts towards the development o the child. In 1986, the Federal Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with Bern d Van Leer of the Netherlands had an agreement for the upliftment of the child’ssituation in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Education Research Council now known as the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the government’s implementing agency, started the Early Child Care Development (EDDCE) in 1987 in five pilot local government areas, especially in rural communities. The programme was phased between 1987 - 1990; 1991-1995 and 1997-2001. Its limitation is that it was not executed nationwide, although it later expanded to cover 59 local government areas. And a greater number of disadvantaged children were still left out uncatered for.

The new Federal Government/UNICEF country programme of cooperation which started since 2002, and will continue till 2007 only has the objective of improving learning performance of about 30 per cent of pre-school children in the selected local government areas. The main goals of the programme are to protect the rights of Nigerian children and women, reduce infant mortality rate and minimize mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS by preventing invention during pregnancy and providing effective treatment and care.