Integration Of Holistic Life Developmental Skills Into Early Childhood Education Curriculum For The Development Of Foundational Academic Competence ' In Nigerian Children:-Udo, Maryann Chidi E

Abstract The study sought to explore the integration ofholistic life developmentalSkills into early childhood education curriculum for foundational academic competence and community development in Nigeria. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study and descriptive survey design was adopted. The population of the study was 5,584 which comprised 5,084 pre-primary school teachers and 500 head teachersfrom public primary schools in Owerri Education Zone ofImo State. The samplefor the study was 400 which comprised 306 teachers and 94 head teachers drawn from a sample of 40 primary schools selected for the study. The multi-stage sampling technique was adopted and a researcher-made structured questionnaire, Holistic Life Developmental Skills Questionnaire (HLDSQ) was usedfor data collection. The instrument was made up of26 questionnaire items for the pre-primary school teachers' and the head teachers, both ofwhich were rated on a 4-pointscale. The instrument wasface-validated by three specialists. Using the Cronbach Alphaformula, the internal consistency indices of0.81 and 0.78 respectively for sections A and B were considered high enough for the instrument. The data for the study was administered and collected with the aid of one research assistant, after which all the 400 copies ofthe instrument were also retrieved from the respondents. Analysis was done using mean to answer the research questions, while t-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level ofsignificance. Thefindings revealed that the integration ofholistic life developmental skills into early childhood education curriculum willfacilitate optimum development of the child's full potential. Based on thefindings, conclusion and recommendations were made.