The relationship between early childhood education and primary school academic achievement in Solomon Islands

Abstract

This paper determines the relationship between early childhood education and primary school academic achievement in Solomon Islands. By identifying factors within early childhood education programmes that influence children’s primary school academic achievement, this study seeks to offer additional understanding about the relationships between early childhood and primary education that may be utilized by educators, policy planners at all levels, and by the communities and families themselves. Several conclusions may be drawn from the findings. First, early childhood education is positively related to primary school academic achievement in reading in Solomon Islands. Second, early childhood education experiences contributed to higher performances in specific skill areas in both reading comprehension and mathematical concepts and applications. Third, kindies and prepatory classrooms that had a large variety of age-appropriate learning materials and teachers with early childhood education training were associated with better performances on both reading and mathematics examinations.