Abstract:
The study assessed the extent to which the National Policy Education (NPE) has been implemented in Early Childhood Education (ECE) Centres in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State. Specifically, the study determined the extent to which the ECE programme has met with the stipulated policy statement in terms of: establishment of ECE centres, teacher specialisation, application of language and method of instruction among others. Six (6) research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. Methodically, the researcher employed descriptive survey design for the study. A sample of four hundred (400) respondents (300 teachers and100 head-teachers) drawn from all the primary schools in the study zone responded to the researcher's designed questionnaire titled; Assessment of Policy Implementation on ECE Questionnaire (APIECHQ), which consisted of 30 questionnaire items in six (6) clusters. Mean and standard deviation with four point ranking order were used to analyse the data, t-test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed low or unsatisfactory implementation of the NPE as evidenced among others by lack of adequate support to private efforts, failure in the application of the recommended language of instruction and method of teaching, ineffective supervision and maintenance of ECE facilities. This implies that ECE centres provide poor quality educational background for children at this stage. Based on this, the researcher recommended among others that maximum support should be given to private participation, provide and recruit professional ECE teachers, organize regular Seminars and workshops for teachers, intensify efforts to funds for infrastructural development and supervision of ECE activities.
