ECE REPORT: “I want to be next Nigerian president from my community after Shagari”-Yusuf

By Doosuur Iwambe

5-year old Alamin Sani Yusuf is among the over 120 pupils currently undergoing their Early Child Education at Magaji Abdulahi Early Child-hood Care Development Centre located in Shagari town in Sokoto State.

Yusuf whose confidence has being built through early learning told the Daily Times that he would love to become a president of Nigeria in future.
He said, ‘’I would like to become the next president of Nigeria in future like Shagari when I grow up’’.

Yusuf who spoke with the aid of an interpreter, said that his desire to become president is to help people, his family and make them smile when he becomes president.

‘’When I become president, I will assist my family, help people and make them happy because I like it when people are happy’’.

Also, 3-year old Amina Bello who is always looking forward to come to school every morning want to be a teacher like her mistress.

‘’I like the way she talks and take care of us. I want to be like her when I grow up’’, she said.

Even though there are about 2000 primary schools in sokoto state, only about 500 schools in the state have Early Child-hood Care Development Centre.

The morning circle activities at the Magaji Abdulahi which is usually practised every day is a boost to ECE in Sokoto State.

Every morning, the children gather together to enjoy each others’ company and explore their own inner thoughts and emotions under the guidance of a teacher.

The pupils seat in a circle on the floor. Most of the time, they would stand in uniformity to match the activity in question with an action on the directive of a teacher.

The instructor, Zara’u Modi leads the pupils in a song while they take up response with clapping of hands and body demonstration. They talk and listen to her as she unfolds another drama activity and a lot more.

Why is early childhood education important?

A newborn baby’s brain is about a quarter of the size of an adult brain. Incredibly, it will double in size by the child’s first birthday and will have completed 90 percent of its growth by age five. During the early childhood years, the brain is making millions of synapses every second. These neural connections allow us to move, think, communicate and comprehend the world around us. To say that this is a critical window of development is an understatement.

There is a large body of research that suggests a high-quality ECE program can have a positive long-term effect on the lives of children. The National Education Association (NEA) states that research shows children who receive a high-quality education before they turn five enjoy significant medium- and long-term benefits. Children in early childhood education programs are:
“We have a lot of scientific data about brain development at this age, but there is a huge gap between figuring out what young brains need to thrive and actually making policies or funding programs based on that information,” Dr. Negussie said.

She emphasized the need for more people to understand that children have an impact on everyone — not just parents.

“We forget that kids grow up and become leaders and decision-makers,” she poses. ECE should be at the forefront of political, social, state and federal discussions because every single child deserves a high-quality education, regardless of race, ethnicity or class’’, she added.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) only one in three children have access to Early Child Education (ECE) in Nigeria.

The UN body said that this represent only 36 per cent of the total child population in the country adding that about 10 million children are not enrolled in ECE.

Speaking during a two-day Media Dialogue on Early Child Education (ECE) in Nigeria, UNICEF Education Specialist, Yetunde Oluwatosin emphasised the need for leaders to prioritise ECE.

Oluwatosin noted that early childhood is a critical period which any country must pay attention to as doing so would improve the economic outcome of the child.

She said that the period must be consciously built to contribute to the child’s early transformation.

She said: “It has been observed that a large inequalities persist between the poorest children and the richest children’s ECE attendance rate translating to 8 per cent and 87 per cent respectively.

“Globally, fewer than one in three children ages three to four attend ECE.” In West and Central Africa, only one in four (24 per cent) attend ECE.

“In Nigeria, only one in three children (36 per cent) attend but at least 10 million children are not enrolled.

“Research has shown that children who attend ECE perform better in academy and have greater earning potential as they grow over the years,” she said.

She further listed factors that affect ECE to include; poor subsector analysis planning and coordination which includes low workforce, poor training and infrastructure, inadequate spending on ECE, low public demand for ECE, insufficient ECE teaching and learning materials and low support for early learning.

Oluwatosin explained that the challenges of ECE are systemic, especially the education sector analysis in terms of the workforce and strength to get infrastructure.
She said that ECE should be a specialised area that must be planned for.

She noted that adequate data to drive early learning is critical to achieve progress.

Oluwatosin further stressed the need to strengthen the roles of parents as the first educator of the child saying; “We also need to strengthen the roles of parents as the first educator of the child, provide adequate funding for pre-primary education, build the capacity of teachers and provide adequate curriculum for ECE.“

On is part, UNICEF Communication Specialist, Dr Geoffrey Njoku, said there was a need to focus on ECE as it is the bedrock of literacy and numeracy everywhere across the globe.

“We want to have children who can code, the world has changed and we need Nigerian children to be at par with their mates across the globe. And so we are here to push that agenda and advocate for improved ECE in Nigeria.”

Dr Amy Panyi, the country coordinator of the Early Childhood Development Initiative (ECDI), said play-based pre-primary education is the best way children can learn at home or in learning centres.

According to her, the play-based learning process helps children develop their psychosocial skills, build self-confidence and esteem, improve their critical thinking ability, be innovative and exploitative and become creative.

“As Early Child Educators, you don’t tell a child that you’re wrong because it demoralises them and makes the child lose confidence and ability to be curious about his or her environment.

“Our aim is to let our curriculum at the early stage be refelctive of a play-based learning conducive for child development”, she added.

Farouk Umar, the director of Early Child Care Development, SUBEB, Sokoto said the state is looking towards addressing some of the challenges of early childhood education.

“The issue of school feeding is done in some schools and there’s a gradual process of doing it to cover the whole state.

“I’m sure we will continue to expand until all the schools are covered. We were supposed to be here just after 9am because usually they release them for a break around 9am. That’s why if you look at the children now most of them are very hungry, they want to go home because they’re used to going home by this time.

“There’s a need for orientation so that parents and community members are fully informed on the importance of education and in fact, that’s why we have a plan for Basic education in the state.

“In the last two weeks we have been doing training for five days where we review the plan and we incorporated a lot of sensitization activities under the ECCDE to ensure that more awareness is created in ECCDE centres,” he said.