EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

(Faculty of Education and Institute of Education)

Early Childhood Education  (ECE) programme is one that is targeted at training teachers for the nursery and primary levels of education. Nursery education is a very salient step in the transition from home to school. It is aimed at preparing children for primary education since primary education level is the bedrock of any formal educational system. In recognition of the importance of these two levels, the Federal Government of Nigeria devoted adequate attention to them in the National Policy on Education. At present, there are very many pre-primary and primary schools in Nigeria. Most of the pre-primary schools are owned by private individuals and the teachers employed are often times not qualified to teach at this level. There is therefore the urgent need to train human resources in these areas. This is the cardinal purpose of ECE programme.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

         The objectives of the B.Ed (ECE) programme include:

  1. Providing trained manpower for the pre-primary and primary levels of education
  2. Updating the competences of pre-service and in-service, pre-primary and primary school teachers;
  3. Producing teachers who can handle pre-primary and primary education courses  at teacher training levels;
  4. Producing pre-primary and primary school teachers who can pursue graduate courses in these and related areas;
  5. Producing teachers who are able to design, implement and evaluate pre-primary and primary education programmes;
  6. Producing teachers who can diagnose children’s learning needs, aspirations and potentials and translate same into achievable learning objectives for pupils.
  7. Giving training and imparting necessary skills to individuals at the pre-service and in-service, to make them self-reliant.