Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE) is taking ceutre stage in Basic education delivery in the country.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboi disclosed this at a 5-days stakeholder engagement on the development of a roadmap on effective implementation of early childhood care development and education ECCDE in Kaduna.
Bobboi said the change in Education System was paramount to the commission because of the importance of early childhood care development and Education (ECCDE), when access was given to the child to acquire appropriate early stimulation, nurturing care and language skills at very early years in life.
He said it was expected that the ECCDE framework would reinforced the effort targeted at eliminating the menace of Out-of –School children and elicit the attention of ministries, parastatals and local and international development partners to start direction efforts at promoting ECD in Nigeria.
He stressed that globally, records have shown that through play based activities at this foundational stage, the child develops and acquires skills for effective transition into the primary school as well as retention and completion of school.
According to him the Basic Education sub-sector has proven itself in all ramifications, to be a means to an end to so many educational challenges in Nigeria from poor reading habits, poor performance in Schools, lack of interest in acquiring basic and sustainable learning to the very devastating one that the whole world is talking about and earnestly looking for solution to which is the menace of Out of School.
“The commission has to kick start this process in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Education (FME) and UNICEF because it has the mandate to ensure uninterrupted access to qualitative functional early learning to all children within the age group of 3-5 years in Nigeria.
“Though, a lot of resource has been invested massively in the provision of learning materials in schools for the expansion of early Childhood Education delivery, the need for a roadmap cannot be over emphasised.
“This is because, the implementation of ECCDE requires synergy and collaboration as all levels since the early Childhood Development in holistic, inter sectorial, multidimensional and the foundation of all education level,” he said.
The Executive Secretary said the interactive meeting was organised basically to briefly review the implementation of ECCDE in Nigeria, understand its benefits, the best practices around the world in teaching and learning and the National Policy Documental on Implementation of ECCDE; the Status of ECCDE in Nigeria with reference to the states in the North.
He said the second reason for the meeting was the need to fulfil the national policy statement through the development of draft better services delivery and efficiency in education of our children early in their lives.
