Over-Schooling As Correlates of Pupils’ Ability Level in Science at Child Care and Development Education and Pre-Primary Education Schools

Abstract

The Federal Government in her National Policy on Education provided that teaching should just be on rudiment of numbers, letter and forms etc through play. Thus, this study sought to determine the and relationship between volume of tasks usually given as homework, academic work involvement as well as length of time in school and ability level in science of children at Early Child Care and Development Education (ECCDE)and pre-primary education level. The study adopted correlational survey research design.The population for the study comprises all pupils at Early Child Care and Development Education (ECCDE) and Pre-primary schools in all private schools in the study area for 2018/2019 academic session. The sample of the study was 492 pupils from 18 Schools in the study area. The pupils’ cognitive ability level was determined using the scores of class work and homework in their notebooks and textbooks. The scores obtained were converted to T-score; a T-score of 50 and below was considered low ability level while the T-score of 51 and above are high ability level pupils. Data analysis was carried out using multiple regression statistics to answer the research questions and test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that the volume of tasks usually given as homework, academic work involvement and length of time in school have positive regression weights. Also that the volumes of tasks usually given as homework, academic work involvement, staying long hours in school significantly predict pupils’ ability level in science at pre-primary schools. It was recommended among others that Sensitization and awareness education should be organized regularly via workshops, seminars and symposia for teachers by Parent Teachers Association and other stakeholders to help teachers teach children at this level of education using the specified guidelines in the National Policy on Education. State Government should step up monitoring of Early Child Care and Development Education (ECCDE) to harmonize their activities in terms of curriculum and reduce serious violation of the guidelines provided by the National Policy on Education.

Keywords: over-schooling, homework, academic work involvement, length of time in school, ability level, Early Child Care and Development Education, Pre-primary Education