Effect of Nursery Education on the Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The specific objectives of this study are:
- To determine the role of nursery education on the academic performance of pupils in primary schools in Enugu East.
- To indicate that nursery education equips pupils enough to perform better in primary school.
- To establish that pupils in rural area do not perform equally well as their counterparts in urban areas who attended purpose nursery schools.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
Nursery education is the foundation of learning because children who have a weak learning foundation can hardly perform as exceptionally intelligent students in their entire academic life circle. It is at this early stage of learning that children are developed for higher academic exercises. The foundation of education of the child is the preschools education which forms an integral part of his or her early education which may be formal or informal, usually given in an educational institution to children aged 1 to 5+ prior to their entering the primary school. This educational level of the child provides for the physical, motor, health, nutritional, intellectual, aesthetic, emotional and social development of the pre-school child. If child education can provide these vital necessities which are fundamental in human life, it is not therefore unlikely to have an important and strong relationship with the pupils’ performance at the primary school level and perhaps at the secondary and tertiary levels Nakpodia (2011). Learning apart from a very rigorous exercise is procedural. If a child gets a particular step wrong or did not even get it at all, it becomes a very big problem to such a child. This makes nursery education very essential for the overall development of the education sub-sector. Nakpodia arguing further on the importance of early education maintained that the Universal Basic Education Act of 2000 cites Early Childhood Education (ECE), which has to do with pre-primary education given to children between ages one to five, as an integral part of basic education. It represents the first important step in achieving the goals of Education for All (EFA). The scholars notes that since it is the foundation for a life-long education, government is expected to be actively involved in providing it for the younger children but regretted that evidence on the ground has shown that parents, private individuals, religious bodies constitute the largest proprietorship of ECE, while government agencies provide a paltry 10%. Nakpodia and Achugbue(2012,p.140) summarise early education thus: Formal education begins from nursery or pre-primary education which is the education given in day care centers and nursery schools to children aged between 0 to 6 years. It is enriched by the informal traditional upbringing given to the children of age 0 to 3 years which prepares them for school. The government is not directly involved in the establishment of day care centers and nursery schools. Closely related to nursery or early education is the primary education. In some schools, both are operated together and this partly explains why we have names like, international Nursery and primary school, Akpai nursery and primary school among others.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to examine the effect of nursery education on the academic performance of primary school pupils.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information for the study the effect of nursery education on the academic performance of primary school pupils. 200 teachers of selected primary schools Lagos state chapter was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected from the respondents were analyzed in tabular form with simple percentage for easy understanding.
A total of 133(one hundred and thirty three) questionnaires were distributed and 133 questionnaires were returned.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the role of labor union in the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of labor union and democratic consolidation in Nigeria.
Summary
With all the problems encountered in the management of nursery and primary schools in Delta state, Nigeria, it is therefore the view of this research to bring forward a few recommendations for the development of nursery and primary education so that their objectives are not defeated. The establishment of nursery and primary schools should be eliminated from the profit oriented enterprise; rather school owners or government should be concerned with the teaching and learning of the children. The administrators should manage the generated fund judiciously so that they are able to provide adequate facilities needed for the children. Parents must or should also cooperate with the proprietor/proprietress by paying their children‟s school fees so as to reduce the problem of finance. Apart from this, they must contribute their own effort to ensure the development of these schools.
Conclusion
The researcher concludes that nursery education is very essential in the academic performance of primary school pupils. It is also the conclusion of the researcher that pupils who attend nursery schools are more likely to perform better academically than those who do not. It is however regrettable that access to nursery education has been largely limited to children of the rich. Children especially those from the village do not have access to nursery education. What they have is primary schools owned by the Local Government Education Authorities which teachers are either inadequate, poorly equipped, non-committal or a combination of all. For effective nursery education in Nigeria.
Recommendations
For effective nursery education in Nigeria, the researcher makes the following recommendations.
- The government should adopt extra measures in making sure that all children have access to nursery education. Such measure should including grant aiding existing nursery schools, or establishing at least five nursery schools in each of the local government areas in Nigeria.
- Parents should always enroll their children for nursery education.
- Owners of nursery schools should make their charges affordable so that children of the poor can afford.
- Subsequent studies should be conducted to determine nursery school enrolment among children in rural areas in Nigeria.
References
- Adenipekun O (2004). Government Falters in Early Childhood Education in G Adefaye (Ed). Vanguard Newspapers, Apapa December 23, 20(2): 20–22. Vanguard
- Adesina A.D. O. & Okewole, J.O (2014). Survey of Teachers’ Opinions on Mother-Tongue Instruction in Nigerian Nursery Schools: Implications for Educational Policy Making. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4, (10), 247-252
- Babbie, E. (2010). The practice of social research (12thed). US: Wadsworth Publishing Company
- Eweniyi, I. T(2012). Formal kindergaten experience as a predictor of academic achievement of primary five pupils in English Language. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences . 2, (10) 383-390
- Federal Republic of Nigeria (2000). Implementation guideline for the Universal Basic Education. Federal Ministry of Education. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education, Lagos: Government Press
