Early Childhood Education as an Index for Measuring Sustainability in Rivers State

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the Indices Measuring Early Childhood Education for Sustainability in Rivers State, Nigeria. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Correlational research was adopted and simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the sample of the study in which 100 early childhood centres from the population of 572 early childhood centres in Rivers State (UBE Data base, 2021) 100 centre managers responded to a structured questionnaire “Indices Measuring Early Childhood Education for Sustainability Questionnaire (IMECESQ)’ designed by the researchers after the modified Likert scale mode which had its reliability index established at 0.85. answered using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used while the hypotheses were tested by finding the significance of r. This was achieved by converting calculated value of r (r-cal) to t-test statistics since the sample size is more than 30. The calculated value of t. was compared with the critical value of t at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study revealed that the environment, the economy and the socioculture are the indices used to measure the sustainability of early childhood education in Rivers State. The study concluded that the economic, environmental, and sociocultural subscales assess sustainability practices in early childhood education. It was recommended that the sustainability indices could be improved to ensure reliable measurement for the sustainability of early childhood education in Rivers State.