Pre- school education as the name implies refers to that education which the child receives before the age of 5 or 6 years, when the child is assumed by many to be old enough to receive instruction and be able to endure the demands of formal schooling.

 Statistics in Nigeria reveal that more parents now prefer to enroll their children in one form of pre-school programme or the other before they begin elementary school, thus creating a greater demand for these pre-schools, a challenge that even some State public schools have risen to, in order to increase their enrolment which has greatly dwindled.

Despite this trend, it is still not certain that many parents and providers of this service are fully aware of the enormous and lifelong benefits of pre-school education to the child. Many parents still believe today that the only purpose a pre-school programme serves is to keep the child safe and busy while they are at work or where they are too busy to attend to the child. Others argue that since they did not attend any form of pre-school programme when they were very young and are not lacking in any skills or intellectual ability, it is not necessary to send their children to any nursery school before they are old enough to go to elementary school. To such people, nursery schools are simply elitist and unnecessary, especially since it is not part of the mandatory stages of education required by government.

Although the financial demands on many families today have necessitated that both parents work outside of the home, and the dearth of capable and trustworthy nannies and domestic staff who can be employed to look after young children in homes has caused many parents to resort to sending their young children to pre-schools early, parents still need to be educated about the benefits of pre-school programmes to their children

Research has shown and recent studies continue to confirm that 50 percent of an individual’s ability to learn is developed in the first five years of life. By the time a child is eight years of age, about 80 percent of the child’s ability to learn is already developed. This simply means that in the first five years of life, 50 percent of the main learning pathways in the child’s brain is formed and that everything else the child learns in life will be built on that foundation. If the foundation is not solid, future growth is stunted or not guaranteed. It can be likened to building a house, when proper attention is not paid to the quality of the foundation for the structure, the stability of the structure itself cannot be guaranteed. Builders and Engineers will also confirm that the final height of a building can only be determined by the depth of its foundation. The question then is how high or far do you want your child to go?

Unfortunately, these crucial years which determine the future of the child are the years that we totally disregard, do not give any thought to and completely ignore in some cases. They are the years that we think that the child is incapable of learning and uneducable. They are the years that most nations [including our very own] pay least attention to in terms of education. A lot of money is allotted to higher and tertiary education – a stage when the child is fully formed and no longer malleable – to the detriment of early years education. It is believed that it is the university graduate that should be given the necessary support to function as an adult in society, but little do we realize that it is the child of today that creates the man of tomorrow. The type of adult we would have in the society tomorrow is determined by the child that we have today and the way we treat that child. It is the child that makes the man and not vice-versa.

The experiences of the early years determine the personality of the child and his general outlook to life. They determine whether the child will view learning as fun or drudgery and how well a child would learn. They determine whether the child’s future will be made or marred. It is a period when a love for learning can be kindled or killed forever, a period when geniuses can be birthed or individuals condemned to a life of mediocrity.

Scientists have proved that a fruit fly has 100,000 brain cells, a Mouse -5 million and a Monkey- 10 million. An infant child is born with approximately100 billon active brain cells and each cell is capable of sprouting about 20,000 different branches to store and process information. The  infant child has at birth a brain that is potentially more powerful than the greatest or most technical computers in the world and the most vital connections of the brain are made very early in life. They lay the foundation for all future learning and mental ability or intelligence.

Research has also shown that most human beings are only using a fraction of the capability of their brains.  Almost every child is capable of blooming in several different ways, only if the child is exposed to a variety of stimulating experiences and activities that would wire-up the brain when it is most vital- the first five – six years of life. The child has a mind that absorbs impressions from his environment effortlessly, be it school or home. The foundation stones for language (vocabulary and expression) for example are laid, through the kind of language that the child hears or does not hear within his environment. So vital are these first six years of life that scientists have discovered that children who are not exposed to language at all in the first six years of life (probably because of abandonment) may never be able to use language like human beings again.

Apart from the vital and basic needs of love, comfort and food which the child has, the child also has an important need for mental food which can only be provided by an environment which can help the child explode into learning using all of his senses, to explore, investigate and satisfy his boundless curiosity. This is one of the main functions of the nursery school- an environment that satisfies the child’s innate desire for exploration and order, through appropriate activities and familiar routines in addition to helping the child develop socially through interaction with other children. This way the child is helped to lay down the patterns on which all future learning will be based.

The pre-school should be a fun-filled, flexible and free environment, one where the child is allowed to express himself in every way and learn at his own pace. Skills that will indirectly prepare the child for proper school and learning at a later stage should be learnt e.g concentration, preparation for writing, self-esteem, fine motor skills and coordination, order, pre-math skills[matching , sorting , and ordering ], pre-language skills[ listening speaking, auditory exercises] and many more.

Laying a solid foundation for the pre-school aged child is not the exclusive work of the nursery school staff, but rather a combined work of the school and the home. Parents of pre-school aged children need to realize that they are the number one teachers of their children. Whether they know it or not, these children learn from everything they see or hear adults do in their environment.  How your child will emerge as an adult will be dependent on your child’s experiences especially in the formative years and you have a lot to contribute to this. We need to realize that intelligence is not fixed, it is a combination of nature and nurture [heredity & environment]. You have a major role to play in what your child will become in future.