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EARLY CARE IN NIGERIA

At the World Forum on Early Care and Education, innovative early childhood programs from around the world make brief presentations about their programs.  Program Showcase coordinator, Michael Kalinowski works with the presenters to summarize each presentation for our web site.  To view all showcases or to read more about the Nigerian program on Early Child Care and Development, shared in part below, go to:

http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0101

The ECCD programme in Nigeria is a low-cost community-based initiative for the care and development of children aged 0-6 years based on the affirmation that "learning begins at birth", and the scientific evidence that key-wiring elements in the brain are formed by the age of six years.  The Nigerian government in collaboration with UNICEF made ECCD a bedrock of its basic education programme. Also the world declaration on the survival, protection and development of children in 1990, and the world conference on education for all in 1990 also emphasize most urgent priorities to ensure access to, and improve the quality of education for all children. The ECCD programme was initially started in ten states and later extended to nineteen states to cater for children whose parents cannot afford formal day care and nursery school education in the rural and urban-poor communities.

The ECCD adopted varied and multi-sectional non-formal approaches based on needs and to ensure coverage on a large scale. These approaches include:

*  Market-based initiatives with the establishment of early child care facilities in every day market and on periodic market days.

*  Traditional learning sites like Koranic schools for pre-school children.

*  Non-governmental/community-based organizations initiatives in setting up early-child care facilities
.
*  Missionaries through the churches and mosques.

*  Co-operative and thrift societies in the establishment of day care facilities.

*  Production of educational materials which are low-cost and locally sourced.

*  Child stimulation for education and development through play and appropriate toys and equipment.

*  Resourceful location of ECCD facilities at affordable sites such as town hall, church, mosque, tree shade or market square.
 

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