EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN NIGERIA: A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Visionary leaders who are desirous of leaving progressive legacies for themselves and members of their state mainly do so through education particularly early childhood education. Early childhood education is functionally instrumental for the development of the human capital of a state, as it lights up the activities of a people by serving as entry point for transforming a people and their state. Unfortunately, the aura of progressive revolution that early childhood education receives in other climes terribly dims in Nigeria as she merely plays supervisory and oversight functions. The responsibility to provide early childhood education in Nigeria lies in the hands of private investors who run such institutions as capitalist institutions for profit, resulting in many Nigerians not affording to send their children to early childhood education institutions. Using the philosophical method, this paper establishes that Nigeria’s supervisory and oversight functions in early childhood education has implications for patterns of social mobility, resource distribution, access to social goods, stability and patterns of national development of Nigeria. The paper suggests to the Nigerian government to adopt early childhood education as a measure for equalising opportunities, to take over all existing early childhood education institutions in Nigeria or alternatively support and provide incentives to private investors who have been rendering this service to enhance efficiently service delivery. The paper predicts that where something serious is not done, the possibility of using early childhood education as a platform for achieving social justice will remain a mirage in Nigeria.