Social Inequality in Early Childhood Care and Education Provision in Nigeria: A Review of Literature

Abstract

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) programme has been identified as a strong tool to break the cycle of
poverty and effective means to establish the basis for further learning, prevent school drop-out, increase equity of
outcomes and overall skill levels; hence all nations of the world call for effective investment in ECCE. Nigeria
embraced the idea of ECCE and made it a national agenda by incorporating it into the national policy. The essence is
to establish access and equality for children all over the country, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic
transfer. Looking at the trend or the status of the ECCE for some years, it is as if there are lapses in the provision of
early childhood education in the country. The study therefore examined existing research in early childhood
education in Nigeria between 2013 and 2017 (which are pre and post Millennium Development Goals documents) to
highlight the indicators of enrolment in ECCE, sex, and personnel to determine whether there is equality or
inequality in the provision and identify the areas of inequality if there be any. The findings showed that inequality
still exists in the provision of the ECCE programme in Nigeria. The enrolment in the programme is still low as
compared to other educational levels. Employment of personnel into the programme is also very low to the number
at the primary level. There was no visible data on the educational programme as from 2017. It is recommended that
the government should show more commitment to the educational level.