PERCEPTION OF PARENTS ON OVER-SCHOOLING OF CHILDREN AT THE PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION

The concept of a child differs from one culture to another. Some cultures regard one as a child if one is not married, no matter one’s age. According to Opara (2012), a child is a young person, especially between infancy and youth. In the Nigerian Legal system, a child is one that is below the age of 18 years. This is because the person cannot vote or be voted for. He/she is not also qualified to drive. This is in line with article 1 of the Convention on the Right of the Child by United Nations. Furthermore, Umobi and Igu (2010) define a child as a boy or a girl at any age between infancy and adolescence, a new infant, or a person of any age in relation to his parents.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) in her National Policy on Education posits that the pre-primary school child falls within the age bracket of 0-6 years while Maduewesi (1999) views pre-primary school children as young children between 2-5 years engaged in specially designed academic programmes before the age of formal schooling. It is necessary that all who are involved in the education of the child understand and get acquinted with the pre-primary school child.
The pre-primary school children possess certain characteristics which are peculiar to them. According to Abidoye and Agusiobo (2000), these pre-school children are egocentric. That is, they view the world from their own perspectives. They are curious in nature. Their world is filled with excitement. The curiosity varies according to the center of interest at any given time. The children love exploration and in fact, they are investigators. Their love for exploration is demonstrated in their spoiling of new toys and trying to put them together again. Abidoye and Agusiobi(2000) see the children as being energetic and because of this, they cannot sit still for long periods of time. They prefer to do things than listen. Even while listening, they move their bodies restlessly. These pre-school children like to achieve their objectives. They often spend unusual length of time and efforts to solve problems that interest them. Problem solved gives them a feeling of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. Hence, they are persistent.
More interestingly, children are valuable assets from God. They are fragile and the future of any society. That is why they must be well protected and nurtured. They must be well taught both at home and at school. This is because this stage is a critical and delicate period of human life when children are easily influenced and the consequences of such influence greatly affect their adulthood. As observed by Anon (2013a), under the age of six, children absorb information without effort, and this stage of development provides critical foundation for the children’s character, learning and growth. Therefore, in the view of Ibiam (2012), it is necessary for parents, guardians, care-givers and adults to teach children values and social lessons and also provide them with good academic guide while in school.
Parents are caretakers of their children. Hornby (2006) defines parents as a person’s father and mother. Parents, especially mothers, are responsible for the overall care given to the child such as feeding, hygiene and medical care. Therefore, the child needs care and balanced diet for proper early development. This is because proper nutrition is necessary for the development of the brain which in turn is important for intellectual, cognitive and psychomotor development in the child (Ngwoke and Eze, 2010). The efficiency of parents in taking up this responsibility depends on their level of education and exposure.
Parents can be educated or un-educated, some are civil servants while some could be in business. The educated parents are parents with higher education qualifications. They get involved in their children’s education early enough unlike the non-educated ones. They get involved in their children’s education by reading to the children at home, teaching songs or nursery rhymes and assisting in homework. Parental education influences expectations of children. Therefore, having higher parental education is significantly related to higher expectations of children’s achievement (Gratz, 2006).
The un-educated parents are parents who do not have formal education and usually have lower income. Gratz (2006) observes that these parents often have to work longer hours to earn their small salaries. This leaves less time for them to assist their children in reading and even getting involved in their learning process. Gratz (2006) further observes that low income parents may not be neglectful parents but it is easy for them to slip into the stereotype under extreme pressure. Hence, most of them may not adequately provide appropriate educational guide to their children due to lack of appropriate knowledge and time. 
Parents who are civil servants are those under the employment of the government, either at the Federal, State or Local government level. According to Kwaghga (2010), civil servants are a body of men  and women employed in a civil capacity and non political career basis by the Federal and State government primarily to render services in form of advice, formulation and implementation of policies of the government. They are appointed on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. They are expected to carry out their roles with dedication and commitment to civil service and its core values which are integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality (Civil Service Code, 2010).They offer services within the working hours determined by the general or specific provisions in effect. In the event of extraordinary and urgent official needs, civil servants also offer their services beyond the working hours or during non working days (Ministry of the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization,1999).
Business parents may be involved in micro, small or medium scale business. According to Luetkenhorst, Geiger, Ozsoy and Fidan (2004), micro, small and medium scale businesses make important contributions to economic and social development. In economics, they constitute the vast majority of business establishments. They are usually responsible for the majority of jobs creation. They account for one- third to two- third of the turnover of private sector. In developing countries, they are seen as a major “self help” instrument for poverty eradication. Constant (2008) observes that while big companies create jobs and stimulate innovation, self employment contribute to job creation and economic growth,  alleviating welfare burden and leading many to economic and social advancement. Discussing about business women, Constant (2008) said that the reason why women choose self employment was that they could easily combine work and family responsibilities. They could even conduct business from home while simultaneously satisfying domestic responsibilities.
Therefore, irrespective of parents’ status in life, they benefit from pre-primary education programme which provides adequate care and supervision of their children while they are away for the day’s business. Therefore, perceptions and involvement in the proper education of the children, which begin from the home, may vary from parent to parent.   The home is very important in the education of children.  The home background plays a significant role in a child’s orientation about literacy and education.  In his view, Smetana (1990) posited that the most effective parenting style for facilitating children’s success as well as their general nurturance seemed to involve being authoritative. This starts right from the home, as early as when the children are undergoing pre-primary education. Smetana(1990) further observed that pre-schoolers did not learn to read without parental instructions, hence learning to read and write could be traced back to the preschoolers’ home background.
At school, particularly at the pre-primary level, the children ought to be taught according to the provisions and guidelines of the National Policy on Education, (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004), which recommends teaching of rudiments of numbers, letters, colours, shapes, forms, among others, through play. The Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) in her National Policy on Education defined pre-primary education as the education given in an educational institution to children prior to their entering the primary school. It comprises the crèche/day care (0-2years), nursery/play group (3-5years) and kindergarten (5-6years). It consists of activities that facilitate a child’s learning, growth and development. This level of education is important as it strengthens the child’s self esteem and provides positive learning experiences as well as opportunities to interact with peers in diverse ways.
 Pre-primary education is very important because it is the early years that determine what the adult becomes. As summarized by Amajirionwu cited in Maduewesi (1999), early childhood education is necessary as a lifelong source of developing interest and aspiration among young children.  This level of education provides one of the environmental influences that gradually interact with the developing abilities and dispositions of young children to form all aspects of their personalities- social, emotional, affective, moral, physical, intellectual, creative abilities, among others .Therefore, this level of education is not academic- oriented, but a play level during which children are prepared through play, for actual schooling. It is more of a social service, and custodian in nature. It can be provided by the government, community or private individual. It may be integrated into a primary school or can stand alone. Chijioke(1996) observed that some families took care of and educated their young children at home but, majority of the families also employed other people to take temporary responsibility for the care and education of their children at home, childcare centers and nursery schools. Crahay (1990) also observed that the mothers no longer routinely cared for their young children on full time basis as a result of their remarkable increase in women’s labour force participation and participation in education and learning. Therefore arrangements are made for the care of young children and infants during the working or school hours of their parent(s). Hence, this led to the emergence of early childhood care and education or what we refer to today as pre-primary education (Ibiam, 2012). Hence, at the pre- primary schools children are taken care of while their parents are away for their daily businesses. 
However, serious violation of the provisions and guidelines of the National Policy on Education are observed at this level, such as over-schooling of the children. Government provided a simple curriculum as a guideline for the operations at this level. This simple guideline allows the teaching of children through play. Curriculum, as explained by Umobong, Akubuiro and Idika (2012) is the official and authentic content which translates the expectations of the society into bits of knowledge, skills and attitudes that should be transmitted to learners with a given course or programme in both formal and non formal school setting. 
Most often the pre-primary level of education is misinterpreted to be a stage for actual schooling where children are expected to learn difficult tasks, hence making the curriculum complex. This contradicts the provisions of the National Policy on Education. In supporting government position, Weikart (1990) said that the appropriate curriculum for children at the preprimary level should be focused on development of dispositions which would enhance further learning. For Weikart(1990), this curriculum should enable children develop a disposition for curiosity, friendliness, problem solving, interest in reading and numbers and for seeing school as a positive and supportive place. Ibiam and Aleke (2012) expressed dissatisfaction as contradiction of these provisions and guidelines on the curriculum have resulted in teaching the children things that are actually beyond their intellectual development by overloading, overtasking and overburdening the children, which is referred to as over-schooling. Ibiam and Aleke(2012) further observed that most proprietors and teachers expose these children to real teaching of numbers and numeracy which contradicts government’s provisions. 
There is also the problem of non- uniformity of the curriculum used by different providers of pre-primary education. The non-uniformity of the curriculum used by different schools poses a lot of problems especially as government does not adequately monitor the preschool programme. Ibiam( 2012), advised that as a result of the young children’s learning pattern, social, emotional and cognitive development should be at the children’s pace taking place through play and active method, rather than having the curriculum of a particular class or school being overloaded beyond the level of the children. Another ugly situation is that most teachers at this level of education are professionally unqualified, under-skilled, undereducated or under-schooled to actually understand the goals and purposes of this level of education as provided by the FRN (2004) in her National Policy on Education and the learning theories. Some parents and guardians support the idea that their children and wards be given more schooling to cover every aspect of the curriculum. This equally leads to over-schooling.