Teaching the pre-primary child reading and writing: a challenge for pre-primary school teachers in rivers state, Nigeria.

Abstract

Early childhood care and development has become an integral concern for educators for the development of primary education around the world. As much as schools are short of good teachers in the implemented Universal Basic Education scheme (UBE) in Nigeria, it is also difficult to find committed and creative teachers to take care of children’s early education. The basics of what the child learns in all school subjects are totally concentrated on literacy skills generally. This paper therefore clarifies the meaning of language skills for effective communication as predominant in all of the child’s interactive learning and emphasizes specific teaching methods like the integrative approach for use by the preprimary school teacher. The paper also capitalizes on the use of the curriculum for pre-primary teachers and its implication. It is recommended therefore that, pre-primary teachers through enhancement of job demands must imbibe literacy activities as a routine in respect of the improvement in the teaching of the child and attend skill acquisition workshops and seminars regularly.

KEYWORDS: Language-skills, Literacy-methodology, Creativity-Oriented activities.