Article Details

This study investigated the influence of teacher’s skills and competences on early childhood education in Abia State. Four (4) research questions and four (4) hypotheses (which were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance) guided the study. The study adopted a survey design. A sample size of 200 teachers were randomly selected out of 1,000 as population of the study. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled “Influence of Teachers’ Skills and Competence on Early Childhood Education Questionnaire (ITSCECEQ)” comprising 40 items measured on a 4 – point rating scale of Very Important, Important, Slightly Important and Not Important. The instrument was face validated by experts and educationists and reliability co-efficient of 0.88 was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha while data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation; Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the relationship. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents were female, had appreciable level of experience, acquired B.Ed/B.Sc in Education certificates from institutions, had specific subject matter knowledge and extensive preparation. The teachers of early childhood possessed appreciable skills and competences (which are keys for effective early childhood education and development); effective communication, social balance, trust, psychophysical development, character formation, individuality, overall happiness; pedagogic knowledge, socio-emotional personality and learning behaviour of the pupils. There was a positive and significant (p<0.05) effect of the skills and competences of early childhood educators on early childhood education. The study further recommended effective and continuous appraisal process with emphasis on all teacher competence factors such as qualification, professional development and experience.