For meaningful devt, Nigeria must get early childhood education right – ECAN
Nigeria/April 26,2023/By Elizabeth Osayande/Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/
The Early Childhood Association of Nigeria, ECAN, has noted that for Nigeria to develop into global relevance, it must prioritize early childhood education. This is because they called for a holistic understanding of the national policy on education.
This was unanimously stated by the two lead paper presenters at the first national retreat of the association, tagged:” Town and gown synergy: the modus operandi, and held recently in Lagos.
In his paper presentation, a Professor of Classic, Prof. Doyin Odebowale, who spoke on the importance of nurturing the child, and building the environment, explained one step toward getting it was to shun the commercialisation of early childhood education, and the nurturing of the child in their formative years through his or her local languages.
His words: ” We must adopt our local languages in teaching our children, and have content that addresses our specific needs first. This is because development is about the people. And for a people to be developed, they must first learn their local languages from cradle.” Prof. Odebowale reiterated.
On her part, a Professor of Teacher Education (Pedagogy) & Childhood Education, Tai Solarin University, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, Prof. Folasade Sulaiman, noted that getting early childhood education right needed a holistic understanding of the National Policy on Education.
Sulaiman who spoke on the theme:” How play contributes to the children learning noted that ” Our inactions, and ineptitude have brought the decay we are seeing in the education sector.
” Getting it right means enforcing, and implementing the national policy on education. And the first step is getting only the best into the teaching practice.” Sulaiman started.
The Prof. Of early childhood education reiterated that play which was a second nature of the child, build the children’s cognitive, locomotive, and physical as well as all-round education.
Early on the host of the retreat, ECAN national president, Prof. Biodun Abidogun while calling for the establishment of an early childhood commission, noted that the reason for the retreat was to bring all stakeholders involved in early childhood education, to brainstorm ways to improve and develop the sector.
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