Caregivers Leveraging on Standards as Agents of Change in Early Childhood Education in the 21 st Century Dynamic Society

Abstract

The study assessed caregivers leveraging on standards as agents of change in early childhood education in the 21st century dynamic society. In doing this, four research questions guided the study. The study adopted the descriptive research design for the population of all the 975 caregivers in Port Harcourt metropolis. A sample of 200 trained caregivers participated in the study. A 32 item instrument and an expert validated self-structured 4-point rating scale instrument titled “Caregivers Leveraging on Standards for Changing Early Childhood Education Inventory” (CLSCECEI) with a reliability coefficient of .704 (using Cronbach Alpha (ra) method) was used to collect the data analyzed using mean, standard deviation and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to answer the research questions at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that: caregivers creativity (with a Pearson Correlating Coefficient (r) of 0.826 and p-value of 0.001<.05), caregivers as an assessor (with a Pearson Correlating Coefficient (r) of 0.803 and p-value of 0.001<.05), and caregivers as safety officer (with a Pearson Correlating Coefficient (r) of 0.841 and p-value of 0.001<.05) positively, very strongly and significantly facilitated the development, transformation and schooling respectively of the child in early childhood education centres in Port Harcourt metropolis. The study recommended amongst others that caregivers should creatively initiative programmes and incorporate activities that would stimulate the interest and enthusiasm of the children to effectively learn and socialize