Developing Sustainable Day Care Services in Rural Communities of Nigeria

Abstract

Child care in day care setting has become popular in Nigeria because of its important role of providing early childhood education to pre‐school children as well as play custodial role for mothers while at work. The focus of the study was to determine the level of awareness of mothers and local organizations of the need to develop sustainable community‐based group care facilities for pre‐school in rural areas through cooperative efforts of mothers and local groups in their various localities where such facilities are currently lacking or inadequate. The study was conducted in 40 villages randomly selected from ten local government areas of Osun State of Nigeria. Structured interview schedule was used to collect information from two hundred and thirty mothers while Semi‐structure questionaires were completed by one hundred and sixteen respondents from local organizations. Descriptive statistical techniques like frequency counts, percentages, weighted mean scores, correlation and regression analyses were used. The results showed that majority (93%) of women in the study were married with infants and pre‐school children. They were involved in different types of jobs and spent long hours working outside their homes daily. The mothers' most preferred child care method was Day care/Nursery Schools option with weighted mean scores of 4.88. Forty percent of the local organization involved in the study were willing to contribute towards payment of teachers' salaries, 25% towards the provision of space/classroom blocks while mothers were willing to contribute in the following ways: patronage, policy formating (P.T.A) and provision of teaching materials, toys, play equipment.