Strategies for Enhancing the Early Childhood Education Program at the Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze, Anambra State

Strategies for Enhancing the Early Childhood Education Program at the Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze, Anambra State

Chapter One 

Significance of the Study

The study is designed to develop the strategies for improving early childhood education programme in Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze. The findings of the study will be of immense benefit to all the stake holders in the following ways.

1. The teachers will benefit immensely from the findings of the study as it would expose them to the various ways and methods available for improving early childhood education.
2. The students will also benefit from the finding of the study. This is because an appropriate strategy employed in the course of improvement will facilitate understanding and improve its outcome in teaching learning process.
3. It will also help the curriculum planners, who may be in the need of resource materials upon which to work on will benefit from it as it will provide them with empirical basis for references and well broaden their knowledge as they work on their own area of interest.
4. The study will also benefit the parent and society in the sense that they are motivated to contribute financially to ensure that quality education is given to their children.
5. More so, the government, it will encourage them to improve the programme by providing equipment and materials for the running of early childhood education programme.

Scope of the Study

The study is limited to strategies for improving early childhood education programme in Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW

Early childhood education programme is one of the basic educational course studied in institutions. The federal government of Nigeria recognize the importance of early childhood Education and as a result, it was given prominence in the National policy on Education (FRN, 2004) as one of the programme in the Nigerian Educational system. According to FRN (2004) Early childhood Education is labeled as pre-primary Education and is defined as the education given in an educational institution to children age three to five plus to their entering the primary school.

The importance of a solid foundation in Education is obvious. Early childhood education is where the foundation is laid. Poor performance in the order level of academics and implementation can be traced to this foundation level. So a thorough knowledge of what, and how education is been handled at this level is imperative. Therefore, Government and stakeholders needs iron determination to implement the strategies that will necessarily enhance the quality and quantity development of early childhood Education programme.

According to NPE (2004) stated that the purpose of early childhood education is to prepare the child for primary school education, which is universal, free and compulsory, and to every Nigeria child the opportunity to go to school and receive Education as a right enshrined in the National Policy on Education. In fact, a house that is on faulty foundation cannot stand the test of time and space. So if the Early childhood Education is the ‘recognized’ foundation stone of Nigerian Educational system, then it should be reinforced, adequately funded, equipped, staffed and whole heartedly implemented and not neglected.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

Data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed using mean which was used to answer the research question.

The mean of the item is obtained as follows:

Where = Summation

X=Norminal value of points

N= Number of respondents

Norminal value were assigned to the five scaling items thus;

Strongly Agreed SA = 5

Agreed A = 4

Undecide UD = 3

Disagreed D = 2

Strongly Disagreed SD = 1

To determine the cut-off point the norminal values were added up and the mean determine thus:

5+4+3+2+1  =   15   = 3.0

5  5

The mean score (3.0) is derived from SA = 5, A=4, UD=3, D=2, and SD=1. The mean here 3.0, but the decision rule of a (5) five point likert scale type, the upper limit is chosen. That is, 0.5 is added to give 3.50. Therefore, any response which has a mean of 3.50 and above will considered as agreed upon and response with a mean value below 3.50 will be considered as disagreed.

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION AND DATA ANALYSIS

TABLE 1

Mean response of respondent on the effective strategies for improving on early childhood education programme.

S/N	ITEMS	SA	A	UD	D	SD	T	N	X	REMARK
1	Organizing workshops and seminars for teachers will enhance the production of competent teachers.	102	79	20	6	1	883	208	4.24	Agreed
2	Government to allocate more funds for implementation of early childhood education programme	130	47	31	0	0	931	208	4.47	Agreed
3	Regular supervision by government and ministry	71	124	12	0	1	888	208	4.26	Agreed
4	Employment of enough and qualified teachers for early childhood education programme.	53	155	0	0	0	876	208	4.21	Agreed
5	Providing instructional facilities, equipment and materials.	82	63	50	12	3	835	208	4.01	Agreed

Form table one (1) above, it was observed that the respondents agreed with all the response with the item concerning the effective strategies for improving on early childhood education programme. The items agreed are thus; Organizing workshops and seminars for teachers will enhance the production of competent teachers; Government to allocate more funds for implementation of early childhood education programme; regular supervision by Government and ministry; employment of enough and qualified teachers for early  childhood education programme; and providing instructional facilities , equipment and materials with mean responses of 4.24, 4.47, 4.26, 4.21, and 4.01 respectively.

RESEACH QUESTION 2

What are the effect of inadequate number of qualified teachers on the effective implementation of early childhood education programme.

TABLE 2

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Suggestion For Further Studies

The following are suggested for further studies.

1. Teachers role in improving early childhood education in Nigeria.
2. The effect of early childhood education experience on the academic performance of primary school children.

Reference

• Osakwe RN 2006. Understanding Teaching Profession. Benin city: Osasu Printing Press.
• Tor-Anyiin, S. A (2008), Origin, Growth and Development of Pre-Primary and Primary Education in Nigeria. Makurdi: Selfer Academic Pres Ltd.
• UBE 2006. The State of the UBE Programme. UBE Manual. Federal Ministry of Education Publication
• UNESCO (2007). Nigeria Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programmes; International Bureau of Education (IBE). Retrieved from efareport@unesco.or. On the 11th February 2011.
• UBEC (2011). Update on the activities of UBEC. A paper presented at the 57th meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE) held in Sokoto, Sokoto State (21st -25th Feb).
• UBEC (2004) Universal Basic Education Commission “The Compulsory Free,  Universal Basic Education Act, 2004 and Other Related Matters”.
• Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC): (2004). Federal Government Funded Projects. Available Online at www.skills4industry.com
• UKEJE, B. O. (1986) Education For Self-Reliance, A Paper Presented at Senior Executive Course at the Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State, March 20,.
• Wikipedia, the Free Encylopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/early Childhood Education.
• Zakariyah, I. (2012). Lecture note on Curriculum and Resources. Centre for Continuing Education, College of  Education, Minna.
• Zhang, L. F. and Stenberg, R. J.  2009.  Perspectives on the nature of intellectual styles.  New York: Springer.

Questionnaire

Department of Early Childhood Education

Federal College of Education (Technical)

1. M. B 0189

Umunze

3^rd July, 2015

Dear Respondent,

We are final year undergraduate NCE students of the above mentioned department. We are currently carrying out a research on ‘’Strategies for improving Early childhood Education Programme in Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze.’’ This research is part of the requirement for the award of N.C.E. The questionnaire below is designed to assist us in this research.

Please respond to the questionnaire as truthful as possible. We assure you that all the information obtained from you will be confidence  and purely for academic purpose.

Thanks for your anticipated cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

Madu Loveth. C

Okeke Blessing

Onyedibe Augustina. A.

Akasike Nneoma

SECTION A : Personal data

NAME: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

SEX : Male (    )     Female(    )

Highest question:

Years of experience:

SECTION B :

INSTRUCTION : Tick good ( Ö   ) in the appropriate space provided and make statement where necessary.

Respondent should take note of the following

SA – Strongly agree

A – Agree

UD – Undecided

SD – Strongly disagree

D – Disagre

RESASERCH QUESTION 1

What are the effective strategies for improving on early childhood education programme?

S/N	ITEMS	SA	A	UD	D	SD
1	Organizing workshops and seminars for teachers will enhance the production of competent teachers.
2	Government to allocate more funds for implementation of early childhood education programme
3	Regular supervision by government and ministry