The National Minimum Standard on Early Child Care Centers (ECCC) in Nigeria and the Status of Pre-Primary Education in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of Edo State

Abstract

Pre-Primary Education Programme has been shown to bring critical gains to children’s social, emotional and cognitive development. The study therefore, Evaluates public Pre-Primary Education in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of Edo state: to find out whether the directive given by the Federal Government to Ministry of Education across the federation to establish PPE in all public primary schools in 2009 has been obeyed and to determine the extent to which they meet the guidelines as spelt out in the National Minimum Standard on Early Child Care Centers (ECCC) of 2007. Six research questions were raised to get the study. The study employed a descriptive survey research. A purposive sampling Techniques of (20) Twenty Pre-primary schools were selected from the 71 public schools with pre-primary school in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of Edo state. One instrument that was used, is a check list based on the contents of the environment models of the Pre-Primary Education as spelt out in the National Minimum Standard for ECCC in Nigeria. The data shows that the Standard of Pre-Primary Education fall short of the expectation that will help Nigeria to attain the desired position among nations of the world. Recommendations were made to the government to; build more classrooms, provide early childhood education curriculum for teachers and provide play facilities in these public pre-primary schools in Uhunmwode Local Government Area to enhance the intellectual, emotional, physical and healthy growth of the children.