The study assessed the availability of resources for the implementation of early childhood education and care

curriculum in pre-primary schools. Descriptive survey research design was used. Two research questions and

two null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. The population of the study consisted

of 487 public pre-primary school teachers teaching in the six education zones in the seventeen local government

areas of Enugu State. The sample for the study was 195 pre-primary school teachers. A checklist with reliability

coefficient of 0.87 was used for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used in answering the research

questions while t-test was used to analyze the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results revealed that

many resources were not available at all in public pre-primary schools while some are available but very few in

number and thus not enough. The study concluded that inadequate human and material resources in public pre-

In the life of every child, the early years are the most important periods during which development takes place

in areas such as cognitive, language, perceptual, socio-emotional and motor development for their future

achievements and for adequate social functioning. This is the most crucial period of every child’s life. Whatever

children experience during this period has tremendous impact on their learning, development and future

achievements. This is why the early years of every child needs to be handled with every special care and

attention. Osanyin (2012) described the early years as a remarkable and critical period of growth and

development in the lives of children. Oduolowu and Olowe (2017) opined that the early years of children are

years of extreme vulnerability and tremendous potentials, during which adequate protection, care and stimulation

are essential to provide the foundation for well-being and development. They further noted that it is in

can only be provided through Early Childhood Education and Care (ECCE) program which starts from birth and

Early childhood education or pre-primary school education according to Radhikar (2020) is defined as the branch

of education that focuses upon imparting knowledge to children below primary school age (6 years of age).

According to him, this type of education lays the foundation on which effective growth and development of

children take place. He maintained that whatever children learn at this stage remains throughout their lives as

long as they implement the knowledge in an efficient manner. Furthermore, he stated that children are trained in

areas such as reading, writing, numeracy, oral communication, thinking skills, logical reasoning, problem

solving, decision making, critical thinking, job tasking planning and organizing. Children are trained in these

Anaele, Amadi and Obed (2016) opined that resources are materials, services, individuals or other assets that are

Furthermore, educational resources refer to materials, services, teachers, support staff or other assets that are

transformed to produce benefit in teaching and learning and in the process may be consumed by the educational

institution. These resources help to nurture and support the development of early literacy and numeracy in

children from birth to five years. Chukwubuikem (2019) is of the opinion that these resources should be based

on sound contemporary international research. According to her, these informative and practical materials should

suit a range of early childhood settings and should provide examples of how parents, care givers and practitioners

can create stimulating environment for their children, thereby making use of the most critical period of rapid

support learning activities. Availability of such resources, both human and material is critical for the successful

implementation of any educational program because they are needed to provide a conducive teaching and

Human resources are the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry

or economy. According to Ikechukwu, Ukah and Okpo (2019), human resources are the manpower or workforce

required by a nation or organizations to enable it achieve its pre-determined objectives or to serve the purpose

for which it was established. Human resources in the educational sector are different categories of personnel that

provide different services in the teaching and learning process. It includes specialists or professionals, highly

skilled and experienced staff and non-professionals. Isukpa (2022) observed that no matter how beautiful the

program and assets of an organization or institution may be, without human resources, the attainment of the

Amie-Ogan and Osazuwa (2020) emphasized that since the formative years of a child is very paramount and of

great value to the child and the society in general, therefore, a key element in the delivery of quality early

childhood education is the provision of adequate quality material resources. According to them, material

resources are physical resources utilized by educational institutions in the process of implementing educational

programmes. They act as ancillaries for the achievement of educational goals and objectives. Educational

material resources are an integral part of a well-organized school system. It could be described as any material

used to facilitate the overall teaching and learning process in schools. They include textbooks, visual aids, charts,

maps, chalk/whiteboard, playground and other materials applicable in the education system. Abdulkareem and

Fasasi (2013) described material resources as the tangible resources that can easily be seen and observed in any

educational institution such as classroom, staff office, vehicles, health centers, library, instructional facilities and

so on which directly or indirectly contribute to the achievement of educational goals and objectives. In early

childhood education, material resources are very essential since they are needed for the realization of the

Obanya (2013) also asserted that educational resources are didactic material things which are supposed to make

teaching and learning possible. This is why the Federal Government of Nigeria specified in the 6

National Policy on Education, the dissemination of Early Childhood Education and Care Curriculum to schools

curriculum must be implemented. It is necessary for teachers to have sufficient indoor and outdoor resources in

order to engage in effective teaching and learning of children. It is therefore the role of the teacher to create an

environment that invites learners to observe, to be active, to make choices and to experiment by properly utilizing

As part of the efforts towards improving the quality of life of the Nigerian children, besides incorporating early

childhood education in the FRN (2014), a comprehensive Early Childhood Education and Care Curriculum was

designed for implementation to equip children with the desired skills needed for effective primary education and

social life. Despite all these efforts, experiences have shown that the level of implementation of this curriculum

has been very low in pre-primary schools owned by government in Nigeria especially in the areas of making the

resources needed to implement the curriculum available. Based on this, the following questions come to mind:

assess the availability and utilization of resources for the implementation of early childhood education and care

study involving the use of checklist for data collection (Abonyi, Okereke, Omebe, Anugwo & Nnachi, 2022).

The area of the study is Enugu State, Nigeria. The choice of this area was due to the fact that the area houses

many civil servants in the urban areas whose children are enrolled in pre-primary schools. This makes it possible

to determine the extent of availability of the resources for implementing the early childhood education and care

curriculum. The population of the study consisted of all the 487 pre-primary school teachers teaching in the six

(6) education zones which make up the seventeen (17) local government areas in Enugu State. The total sample

for the study was 195 pre-primary school teachers (8 males, 187 females). To select the sample, cluster sampling

with multi stage approach was used to select 5 LGAs out of the 17 in the state. In each LGA, purposive sampling

technique was used to select the schools with male and female teachers for the study. A self-constructed checklist

titled “Checklist for the Availability of Resources for the Implementation of Early Childhood Education and

Care Curriculum” (CARIECECC) with reliability coefficient of 0.87 was for data collection. The checklist

consisted of two sections; A and B. Section A was on the availability of material resources with 22 items while

section B dealt with availability of human resources with 11 items. Both sections had a two-point scale to elicit

responses from the respondents on the availability of both material and human resources – (1) Available (AV)

(2) Not Available (NA). out of the 195 administered instruments, 180 were returned valid; amounting to 92.3%

return rate. The data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. Research questions were

waiting until already made ones are bought. Another reason for insufficient material resources in early childhood

education is improper storage of such materials and carelessness in handling them. This can directly contribute