Dame Amaechi Seeks Investment In Nursery Education

Worried over the dwindling standards of education in the country, the wife of the Rivers State Governor, Dame Judith Amaechi has enlisted the support of both public and private bodies to revive kindergarten education across the nation.

Dame Amaechi who made the call at the first National Conference on Kindergaten Education in Nigeria organised by her pet project, Empowerment Support Initiative (ESI) last week in Port Harcourt noted that nursery education is the bedrock of standard education across the globe.

She observed that lack of pre-early education in the country has made children vulnerable to crime, militancy sexual abuse and which often times expose young girls to unwanted pregnancies.

Dame Amaechi noted that despite some measures put in place by the federal and state governments to revamp the dwindling fortune in the education sector not much have been achieved to raise the quality of education.

She expressed worry that while the primary, secondary and tertiary institution are getting government attention nursery education has been neglected and abandoned in the hands of private sector and non-governmental bodies.

The Governor’s wife stressed that the current situation was unhealthy hence in the intervention of ESI, which according to her has come to fill the vacuum.

She further said, “Our focus is to catch young the less privileged children who cannot access quality education like their contemporaries in the cities and to bridge the gap in educational opportunities between children in urban and rural areas.”

With the huge gap observed especially in the rural areas, Dame Amaechi disclosed that so far ESI interventionist education support scheme has established early childhood kindergarten education centres in nine local government areas in the state with 3,837 pupils already in the scheme.

The essence of the scheme the Governor’s wife further noted is to establish a permanent centre in each of the 319 wards of the state adding, “the nursery schools have put smiles on the faces of children whose parents could not send to school.”

In a similar vein, a Senior Lecturer in the University of Ibandan’s Department of Teacher Education Dr. Esther Oduolowu has advocated for Early Child Development Education (ECDE) in the country.

Dr. Oduolowu who spoke on the topic, “Teacher and Curriculum Development Programme for Kindergarten Education in Nigeria,” stressed that nursery learning consists of six areas of learning covering Arts, Science, Mathematics, Language Personal and Social Development and Health.

She stated that nursery school teachers have prominent roles to play in ensuring the success or failure of children at that tender age emphasising that the goal is to establish strong foundation for the early years.