AN ASSESSMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY ON EFFECTIVE DELIVERY OF EARLY CHILDHOOD AND CARE EDUCATION IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest across governments, multilateral and bilateral development agencies in looking beyond the formulation of best practice policies and focusing on implementation and effective delivery of Early Childhood and Care Education (ECCE). The purpose of this paper is to examine government policy on effective delivery of Early Childhood and Care Education in Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design type as the information collection mechanism from the participants (Child caregivers in Early childhood education Care centres) for the purpose of predicting, describing and interpreting the subject matter. The population consists of some selected Child caregivers within the study area. A total of 80 participants were randomly selected from 10 purposively selected ECCE care centres in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State. The main instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire based on the research objectives raised in the study. The data collected from the respondents were analysed using Chi-square statistical tools. The study found that there is significant influence of government policy documents as it relates to minimum standards on effective delivery of ECCE; there is significant influence of curriculum implementation as contained in the government policy documents on effective delivery of ECCE and finally there is significant influence of supervision as contained in the government policy documents on effective delivery of ECCE in Nigeria. The study concludes that influence of Government policy plan documents on effective delivery of ECCE cannot be over emphasised. The study recommends that government needs to inaugurate and empower a body that will be charged with the responsibility of monitoring and supervising the activities and operations of ECCE in Nigeria. The researcher recommends that training and re-training of Caregivers is paramount to ensuring effective delivery of ECCE in Nigeria.