CHAPTER ONE

1.0. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

Parents’ positive attitude towards child’s education is important in determining school attendance and academic achievement of the child. Favorable attitude towards schooling and education enhances parental involvement in children’s present and future studies (Rojalin, 2012). Parent’s attitude towards their children’s education is aected adversely by low socio-economic status and since the tribal constitute the advantaged population, it is expected that the attitude of parents of tribal children will be favorable towards education. However, the present study aims to examine whether the tribal parents, today, exhibit a positive and favorable attitude towards their children’s education as a result of increasing awareness of values of education through Government Endeavour’s and initiatives (Rojalin, 2012). Parental attitude is a measure or an index of parental involvement. A child, brought up with aection and care in the least restrictive environment would be able to cope up better with the sighted world. Therefore, the family shapes the social integration of the child more than a formal school. Turnbull (2009) has identified four basic parental roles- parents as educational decision makers; parents as parents; parents as teachers and parents as advocates. Since the parent’s attitude is so important, it is essential that the home and school work closely together, especially for children with disabilities. The Warnock Report (2007) stresses the importance of parents being partners in the education of their children.

The role of parents should actively support and enrich the educational processes. Korth (2004) states that parents should be recognized as the major teacher of their children and the professional should be considered consultants to parents. Tait (2010) opines that the parents’ psychological well-being and the ease or diiculties with which they decipher the cues that facilitate the socialization process influence the personal and social development of the child. It is the parents who exert the major influence on the development of the child from birth to maturity. One of the most important attributes of parental attitude is consistency. As children mature into adolescence, family involvement in their learning remains important. Family involvement practices at home and at school have been found to influence secondary school students’ academic achievement, school attendance, and graduation and college matriculation rates (Dornbusch and Ritter, 2011). Despite its importance, however, families’ active involvement in their children’s education declines as they progress from elementary school to middle and high school (Epstein, 2003). Research suggests that schools can reverse the decline in parent involvement by developing comprehensive programs of partnership (Epstein, 2002).

1.2. Early Childhood Education in Nigeria

In Nigeria, organized education of the child below primary school age did not receive oicial recognition until very recently, receive the attention it deserved. The concept of infant schools was introduced in Nigeria by the missionaries in the early 20th century when such schools were set up in the Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria. Early Childhood education in the form of nursery school or pre-primary education as we know it today in Nigeria is largely a post-colonial development. The semblances of it during the colonial era were the Kindergarten and infant classes, which consisted of groups of children considered not yet ready for primary education. As groping for instruction in schools was not age-based during that period, some children aged six or even more, could be found in some of the infant classes (Tor-Anyiin, 2008).

With the phasing out of infant classes, some parents began to feel the need for nursery schools. During that period, (pre-independence) all eorts for provision of early childhood education were confined to the voluntary sector and received little or no support from the government (Tor-Anyiin, 2008). It was for the first time in 1977 with the introduction of National Policy on Education by the then military government of Nigeria that the importance and need for early childhood education was given oicial recognition and linked with the child’s educational performance in primary school. Gradually, early childhood institution stayed, and by 1985, Nigeria had about 4200 early childhood educational institutions. While by 1992 the number increased to about 8,300 (Federal Government of Nigeria/UNICEF 2003). Nowadays, early childhood educational institutions are located in various places and buildings campuses of universities and Colleges, premises of some industries and business organizations, church premises, residential buildings with unprecedented expansion owing to the high demand for early childhood care and education by parents (Ejieh, 2006).

1.2.1. Concept of Early Childhood Care and Education

Maduewesi (2009) refers to early childhood care and Education as the education offered to children who have not yet reached the statutory age of beginning primary school. He further maintained that it is a semi-formal education arrangement, usually outside home where by young children from about the age of 3 years are exposed through play like activities in a group setting through mental,social and physical learning suited to their developmental stages, until the mandatory age of government approved formal schooling. FRN (2004) refers to early childhood care and Education(pre-primary education) as an education given in an educational institution to children aged 3- 5plus prior to their enrollment in the primary school