Family and Community Participation in Early Childhood Education to Enhance Educational Attainment of the Nigerian Child

Abstract

For a child to be functional and effective citizen, the school, family, and the community have to offer the needed atmosphere for the effective education of the child. It then requires that early childhood care and education have to be taken very seriously if the success of the child must be achieved. This research paper therefore seeks to examine the participation of the family and the community in early childhood education. The paper also considers the concept of early childhood education, its component, importance of family and community collaboration in children’s education. Challenges were also discussed, which involves lack of proper commitment and intervention of the government, poor parental awareness, lower availability of preschools, poor curricular foundation and others. It is in the light of this that the paper advocates for the restructuring of early childhood education through development of expertise skills, building great early childhood education workforce and creating a positive climate by reaching out to the families and communities and providing structures for them to become involved in school activities. The result will be effective family and community partnership that will help children to succeed in school and become useful to the society in the future.