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3 SOCIO-ECONOMIC-HEALTH-IMPLICATION

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Feb 2015. Vol. 4, No.10 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

NURSERY AND PRIMARY EDUCATION SOCIO ECONOMIC HEALTH

IMPLICATION IN NIGERIA.
ARCHANA SWATI AND LOUISA AMAECHI

Directorate Of General Studies Federal University Of Technology Owerri Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

The research study analyzed the nursery and primary education socio economic health implication in Nigeria. The
study observed that a good nursery school must be well furnished and possesses the essential quality of good
standard and the socio economic health of the children must be very outstanding. This has to carter for the unique
physiological and educational needs of the 3-5 age groups. The design method of curriculum frame work is adopted.

Key word: nursery primary education socio economic health

1.0 INTRODUCTION any other sensation to which he is exposed. This

period is crucial and sensitive and has to be carefully
The nursery and primary education are analysed in handled by trained experts to avoid permanent
this section. Under the 1979 Nigeria constitution, damage to the child’s psychological makeup, his
primary education is the elusive responsibility of attitude. Reflexes and even his character in
state and local governments. Nursery education is not adulthood.
the exclusive presence of the elite and urban In the early years of the 20 century further progress
dwellers. The government have promised to was made. It is noted however, that sociologist and
encourage establish more nursery school in rural religion authorities protested vigorously against the
areas. necessity of mothers being forced to work in the
factories. Educationists pointed out the dangers of
We have noticed that in the urban and village formal instruction before the age of five, medical
younger children attend nursery schools which are science was aware not only of the danger of
usually private institutions and are becoming infection, in these early years, but of the vital
increasingly popular. importance of this period in shaping the later physical
development of the child. Psychologists stressed the
2.0 METHODS AND MATERIALS close interaction between mind and body and their
dependent on each other.
2.1 NURSERY EDUCATION
In England, America and the more
The Lagos state Military Governor Rasaki noted that progressive European countries, especially France
the child’s preparation for life with regards to mental and Italy. The Nursery school or class is now
ability, initiative, originally, adaptability, flexibility, admitted to be integral part of a complete educational
industry and energy for work can be acquired under system, though its relatively high cost of maintenance
proper guidance. and the shortage of skills Nursery teachers make its
provision for the mass of children of the age 35 age
1. Federal Military of Education Lagos, 1989, group a practical impossibility. Still it is an ideal
pp4-10 which these countries have placed before themselves
2. The Guardian Friday, May 19, 1989, pp15- (A.D. Souza 1958)
16 Today, the Nursery school has come into its
3. Foot notes… He added the period between 3 own and has taken a well defined place in the fabric
and 5 years were the most crucial for any healthy and of public instruction. But the importance of looking
moral child, as this was the period of tremendous after the physical and mental welfare of future
growth, the child becomes naturally curious and citizens in their early years has yet to be brought
inquisitive, asking questions about his little world home to responsible authorities especially in the
and striving to provide answers to these questions. Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is observed, however,
Using information gathered from tales, legends, and that an adequate provision of

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Feb 2015. Vol. 4, No.10 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

Pre primary instruction in the form of Nursery School The good nursery school is not a place
of classes is an essential adjust to any national system where children are kept happy and busy. It is a
of education. In order to realize its importance, it is healthy and educative environment and planned in
necessary to be clear about its true nature, its answer to physical and psychological needs. Impulses
objectives and aims. Its methods and activities for and desires of the young child. The open air type of
much uninformed criticism have been levelled building the indispensible garden: the simple
against it because of vagueness in most people’s balanced diet and healthy food: the ordered routine of
mind about these important matters (Daily Times a nursery school days; the interesting and varied
1989). activities and experiences, all these take captive the
heart of young child (New Nigerian1989).
A good Nursery School it may be found is
furnished, posses the essential qualities of a Nursery Physically, the child benefits greatly from
in a good homes and the health and well being of the the open air education ad balanced diet. He is trained
children who attend it are its primary concern. It in hygienic habits and his muscles and limbs are
provides for the emotional and mental health of the giving free, expressive play through pleasurable
child and trains him in habits of independence and activity, folk dance and free movement.
self reliance and the art of co-operatives living. The Intellectually, he benefits by the stimulating
Nursery education is different from all other schools, environment and from an education that places good
for is planned specially to cater for the unique emphasis not on sterile instruction but on harmonious
psychological and educational needs of the 35 age creative growth. Socially and morally he benefits for
group. Its sponsors realize that health of the body is he is weaned from an excessive dependence on his
intimately bound up with the welfare of the mind and mother, develops habits of self reliance and
the emotions. That physical fitness may depend as independence, and is trained in co-operative living
much on play and happy social relationships as on and in the give and take of social life.
food, ret, sunshine and fresh air, and that a child’s
psychological health is largely conditioned by his Psychologically, he benefits beyond
physical fitness. measure. The child needs love and security as a
background from which he can experiment, explore,
While Nursery schools stress physical care, express his feelings and enter into happy and
they place equal stress on the educational value that rewarding relationships with others. He needs real
children will derive from attendance at such and active experience of all types of help him to
institutions. The conviction of the supreme master his little world. He needs opportunities for self
educational importance of these has grown as a result assertion and independence, for making and creating
of the scientific study of children’s behaviour as things, for make-believe and phantasy, and for play
individual and in groups, especially of their play in all its infinite variety, the child needs the
which is the most fruitful source of knowledge, and companionship of his contemporaries and the active
the pooled observations of hundreds of child social experience of working with and playing with
psychologists, psychiatrists, child welfare workers order children. The child has his own problems of
doctors, etc. it has been confirmed by nursery school mastery over his body and over material things
practice over a period of years in many countries around him, of sensing and handling of feeling and
including Nigeria, there is little doubt, largely as a behavior of language, reasoning and understanding.
result of a series of controlled experiments, that The good nursery education meets and satisfies his
children who attend Nursery education are physically many needs and helps him in the solution of its
and psychologically fitter and more easily educable problems, thus preparing the way and laying sound
than those who have been deprived of them that their foundations for a normal and healthy youth and
physical emotional and intellectual life is greatly adulthood.
stimulated, and that they play more actively enriching
and learn more easily; that they are better adjusted to In the context of the Federal Republic of
other children, to home and school, and to the Nigeria, this type of situation never prevailed.
realities of life; that they are in short, happier and Nursery education is under agents. This is voluntary
more normal children in every respect (Nigerian in Nigeria and is given in nursery schools which
Observer 1937). admit children between the ages of two and five years
old, Nursery schools help to provide pre-school

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Feb 2015. Vol. 4, No.10 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

experience for young children and gradually It was only after 1960 that the primary
introduce to the idea of going to school. education system became more or less uniform
throughout the country, although minor variations
Regulations governing the establishment and existed. For example, Prior to 1961, the primary
curricula of nursery schools differ from state to state. course in most parts of the Northern states was
There are no formal classes or lessons in these structured to give four years of elementary schooling,
nursery schools. The rooms in which the children followed by four to five years in a middle school. In
learn should be well equipped to enable children to 1980s , this was further reorganized into junior
work and play together. Most nursery schools are co- primary lasting four years and senior primary lasting
educational and they are found mostly in Urban areas three years. The present system of an unbroken seven
where they are run by private individuals or year course came into being in the Northern states in
voluntary organizations. 1961. In most parts of the south, the primary system
offered unbroken six to eight year courses. A present
The curriculum of the nursery school there is not much variation in the system of primary
consists of a wide variety of activities and experience education throughout the country, the age of entry
designed to foster the child’s health, and to bring varies from five to seven years, while the length of
about the many sided harmonious growth of his body, the primary course also varies from six to eight years.
mind and spirit. These activities and experiences may When the new policy was implemented in 1980, the
be called “play”. primary education courses were six year duration.
As a matter of fact play is the breath of life 3.0 CURRICULUM
to young child, hence it forms the rasion d’etretre of
the Nursery School which aims to be above all a rich There are great difficulties in selecting what
play environment, providing wide and varied schools should teach because as a people we do not
opportunities for individual, group and co-operative have a clear notion about the kinds of lives students
play. A young child’s play is not, it is popularly should live after instruction. It is noted however that
believed to be, a harmless waste of time. Play for a logical formers and the conceptual structures of
child for a child is often hard work, through play he disciplines can be assumed as the chief source to use
develops interest and adjust himself to society, and it in determining what would be taught. To this end,
is necessary for his physical and mental health as definitions are given of a curriculum as related to the
food is for his bodily growth. The child’s nature urge school.
to play is neither repressed not directed in the nursery
school, he is free from the rich stored of possible Curriculum as related to the school is both the
games and experiences to choose those which he process determining the intents to be sought through
most affects. It is observed that the games and instruction and the intents themselves as they appear
activities from which he is makes his choice have to guide the planning of programmes, course,
been carefully selected, each of them has a meaning activities and instructional sequences. A governing
and a purpose and they not only are a source of board at a societal level makes curriculum when it
enjoyment to the child but help him to explore his decides on educational aims for given schools, and
environment and learn from experience. Through issuing statements. A curriculum committee in the
them the child acquires initiative and self confidence, schools, in turn, makes curriculum when it prepares
and they satisfy his constructive, creative and educational objectives that specify what students are
imitative impulses and his need for security and to be able to do in order to evidence that they are
adventure. informed and process knowledge about civil rights.

The Nursery education often sponsors The curriculum of Nigeria primary schools
mother’s clubs which are an excellent instrument for has been organized on the traditional single subject
education of the parent’s and specially the mothers, pattern. The subjects taught in most schools include
in the best methods of bringing up their children English language agricultural science, vernacular,
(New Nigerian 1989). nature study, religion knowledge and Arabic. Social
student’s modern mathematics and primary science
2.2 PRIMARY EDUCATION are relatively new subjects in the curriculum of most
schools.

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Feb 2015. Vol. 4, No.10 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

While the vernacular may be used in the curriculum Till recently, primary education meant instruction in
of most schools. The medium of instruction is the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic, and
generally English in upper classes while the primary teachers were trained not educated, their
vernacular may be used in the first two years training consisted in being taught the facts they
experiments are currently going on in some parts of needed in the usual class subjects, and cut and dried
the country to use some of the major Nigerian techniques for imparting these with maximum of skill
languages as the medium of instruction, with England and efficiency. In order that training collages may
languages taught as a separate subject throughout the produce in the primary teachers of tomorrow that
primary course. breath of vision flexibility and adaptability that will
be so essential, a change in their methods of teaching
A sound and well balanced professional curriculum and examine is imperative. Formal lectures should be
must provide intending teachers with good ideals cut down to a minimum and replaced by lecture
such as interest, attitudes, skills, and basic discussions and seminars, where small groups of
knowledge. During the training course a teacher must pupils discuss subjects under the guidance of the
be encouraged and stimulated to evolve for himself a lecturer, or a chairman chosen from among them thus
satisfying and satisfactory philosophy of life and taking an active part in their own educational.
education to give him a clear view of his reason for Demonstration lessons should not be a performance
existence and his objectives and to foster in him the before a class, but a stepping stone to vital criticism
right attitude towards his calling and his grave and discussion. New methods must be courageously
responsibility, for such a view alone will raise his experimented with and the students encouraged using
tack above the level of monotonous drudgery and them. In all respect, the tutorial system where each
make it a privilege and a joy. More over, the teacher lecturer becomes the guide, philosopher essential if
needs to make a full and complete study of the child the student’s personality is to be developed and his
psychology, developmental study of the child through abilities discovered and fostered, the rigid cramping
his various stages of growth, each with its external examination should cease and be largely
characteristics needs and interests. Such knowledge replaced by an internal evaluation extending over the
should be acquired both from books and from life entire course of training in which the lecturers and
besides studying carefully standard works on child tutors have the predominant voice.
psychological a teacher should concentrated, as much
as possible, on actual first hand observation and It is now realized that the majority of teachers fail to
experience of children, as individuals and in groups, break new ground in the primary education because
in every type of situation. material and human conditions are against them. The
classes are too large, time tables too rigid, the
Any methods of teaching that may be advocated or classroom dingy and over crowded and ill-fitted to
practiced in the training collages must be founded on activity work. The children so accustomed to being
well proved and generally accepted facts of child drilled and regimented that the unaccustomed
psychology, if they are to prove fruitful. All the freedom often goes to their heads, and because
methods should begin from and constantly return to parents and the older teachers are often suspicious of
the child. The passing on of well tried methods may or activity hostile to the new fangled methods which
be encouraged in Training Colleges, but it should they stigmatize as all play and work. It is clear that
always be borne in mind that ultimately every many of these defects can be remedies in the training
creative teacher develops his own methods and that colleges. It is noticed that others need the cooperation
the success of the primary school teacher depends on of the education authorities, the schools and the
lesson set methods than what he is in himself. The parents and the community at large.
quality and content of his mind, his interested and
habits, his imaginativeness and sympathy, the Several reforms are highly necessary, if the right type
balance and richness of his personality and his of primary teacher is to find his way into the right
knowledge, love and understanding of children and type of primary schools, and impart there a truly vital
their development. For a teacher to be fresh, vital and complete and harmonious education to children
progressive, he must be continuously extending, entrusted to his care. For this reason all primary
enriching and depending his knowledge of children, school teachers should be qualified.
and of the subjects and skills he is imparting to them.
In Nigeria, the government has done much to
improve the quality of teachers. The Nigeria

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Feb 2015. Vol. 4, No.10 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

Educational Research Council NERC, a Federal tertiary institution depends to a large extent, on the
Government Parastatal has produced avllabuses quality of its primary schools system.
which have been approved by the National Council
on Education, for effective teaching in the primary 4.0 CLASS TEACHING AND CLASS SIZE
schools throughout the country. Furthermore, to RESULTS
enhance the quality of teachers as a means of
realizing the aims of the qualitative educational The primary school lays the foundation of a child’s
programme, the least qualification expected of any later education, and on those responsible for the early
teacher in a Federal Government College is the education of the child depend almost the
National Certificate in Education (NCE) and where responsibility for his later situation all primary school
the teacher is a graduate; he must have a professional teachers should be properly trained and educated.
qualification like a Diploma in Education. This is Teachers in the nursery K.G. and Infant classes,
basic as professional training is necessary for the should have a sound teachers should like secondary
qualitative dissemination of knowledge. teachers, have a sound general education and the
truly cultured people for only a broad and liberal
To achieve this goal, the government has education will produced that wide background of
continuously striven with commendable success, to knowledge and experience which will enable a
improve the quality of primary school system at two teacher to break away from the set text book and the
levels; the first has been quality of primary school conventional instructional groove, initiate new
system at two levels. The first has been in the training methods and approaches to the traditional subjects
of uncertificated teachers in all the schools of the curriculum. This will bring about that
throughout Nigeria, in order to make them quality as correlation and integration of subject matter and
Grade Two Teachers, since about 70 percent of the skills shown from various fields of knowledge. The
teachers in the primary schools are uncertification. folly of differential levels of education and trained to
a high standard, besides a general background of
The National Teacher Institute (NTI) was culture , and a high levels of professional skill, every
establishment in this regard in order to help retain teacher should possess a mature stable, rich and
and remove the quality of these uncertificated many-sided personality.
teachers. The Institute has embarked upon the
training of this category of teacher’s correspondence The teacher must above all be a whole human being
and summer courses. with every part of his personality exercised by a
varied experiences among man and good working
The Institute has also taken over the conduct of the order not a narrow specialist with a one track mind,
Teachers Grade Two Certificate Examinations, emotions frustrated and sympathy limited by the
formerly conducted its first West African unnatural segregation of his or he lot and with no
Examination Council (WAEC). It conducted its first knowledge of his fellow men outside the walls of his
ever Teachers Grade Two Examination in June, 1932, school. For work in our schools, we must train not
for 187.000 candidates, without any hitch. The teacher will follow.
Institute released the results of examination to state
Ministries of Education in November, 1982. It is noted that good teachers are partly born, they
grow as a result of a sound, well-balanced, many
It is equally noteworthy, the Federal Government sided general education but they also need to be made
embarked on the purchase and distribution of some by an adequate professional training, for besides
science and mathematics kits to all the primary personal qualities such as intelligence emotional
schools throughout the Federation. It embarked on stability, resourcefulness, enthusiasm, sympathy, a
donation of Library kits to all primary schools to sense of humour, adaptability, etc. A primary school
cultivate reading habits in primary schools pupils, in teacher also needs certain ideals, attitudes and
its continued efforts towards achieving the qualitative interest and a thorough professional knowledge not
Education objective. only of the subjects taught in schools but of children.
He must acquire a working skill in the use of
The Federal Government has embarked on this professional practices and techniques whereby
programme because it honestly believes that the learning in the widest sense can be promoted most
quality of the students produced from secondary and satisfactorily and economically.

47
 Feb 2015. Vol. 4, No.10 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

Schools are normally organized on a class basis with them there often is an equally formidable one. In
little or no specialization by teachers in lower classes. some countries for example, only fifteen percent of
In senior classes, though in urban areas where there is those who begin secure the four successive years of
high demand for education and where there are schooling usually regarded as necessary for the
inadequate facilities, the class size may exceed the attainment of functional literacy.
normal limit of forty pupils.
It becomes apparent, them that priority problems of
5.0 CONCLUSION elementary schooling are not those perceived to be
most critical for Pakistan. In underdeveloped
5.1 PROMOTION countries, the overriding problem is getting children
into school and keeping them there. In developed
Annual promotion to the next class has been countries, it is providing education at a quality level
the practice for many years now. However, the policy for all children are in school is no guarantee that their
of automatic promotion is being reviewed by some education there is meaningful and well suited to the
states which believe that it is one of the factors development of individual potential.
contributing to the fall in the standard and quality of
education in the country (The Federal Ministry of Worldwide, primary education is the term most
Education (1989) frequently used to designate the first stage of formal
schooling. Primary or elementary education embraces
5.2 END OF COURSE a unit of schooling commencing at age five or six and
concluding between the age of eleven and fourteen,
At the end of the primary course all pupils depending on the country and its organization for
take test of attainment and aptitude mostly in English education. For example, in the united States, 3-3-3
Language and arithmetic, the results of which are plan (six) years elementary, three years of junior
used for the selection of suitable candidate into post- high, and three years of high school or 7-3-3 when
primary institutions in each state. kindergarten is available, is increasingly becoming
the most common pattern of organization. The 8-4
In the Northern states, certificates of primary
plan still remains of the country, as does the 7-5.
education which are really certificates of attendance
Some recent interest in a new middle school resulting
are issued, and in some parts of the South, primary
in 4-4-4 and 3-3-4 plans of organization has tended
school leaving certificate are issues after pupils have
so other the termination point of the elementary
sat for end of course examinations. For the vast
school.
majority of pupils about 70% in many places
education is terminal at this stage. Although there is a REFERENCES
widespread demand for further education for the
large majority of pupils. A.D. Souze (1958) Aspects of education in Indian
and Abroad Orientation Longman New Delhi pp. 1-
5.2 ELEMENTRY EDUCATION 45.
In Nigeria it is observed that in each July, The Delhi Times (1989) Nursery School education
slightly more than half of the nation’s five year olds pp. 1-2.
enter kindergarten, their first year of school. A year
later, they are joined in the first grade by almost all The Nigerian Observer Nursery education (1989) pp.
their fellow five year olds. This mass system of 1-2.
accumulation is taken for granted, likewise in such
developed countries as Canada, Japan, Australia, The New Nigerian Nursery education (1987) p. 1.
Israel, Sweden and England. In dozens of
undeveloped countries, however, no parallel herding The observer (1989) primary education p. 1.
of the young occurs; for them universal schooling is
still a far off dream, these tends to be countries with The federal Ministry of Education (1989) the present
the highest birth rates, and so the effects of effort to system of education Lagos.
build schools and train teachers for them are
frequently offset by increasing numbers of children to J.J. Schwab. (1984) “Structure of the Disciplines
be accommodated. While getting children into Meaning and Significant, “The Structure of
schools is a major problem for these nations. Keeping knowledge and the curriculum pp. 6-30.

48

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