EFFECT OF CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT ON EARLY CHILDHOOD FRAMEWORKS AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS STANDARDS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Curriculum alignment is a prevailing tool for driving early childhood frameworks and primary schools standard in Nigeria’s formal education sector with the goal of transiting the quality of education from its current state to a desired future state. This is a descriptive survey research design that investigated the effect of curriculum alignment on early childhood frameworks and primary schools standards in Nigeria. This study was carried out in the selected public primary schools in the south-east zone of Nigeria with 200 purposefully sampled respondents comprising of 100 teaching and 100 non-teaching staff of the selected schools. The data for this study was collected via a researcher-made rating scale titled “Curriculum Alignment and Early Childhood frameworks and Primary Schools Standards in Nigeria” (CAECFPSS) which was validated by three exerts, one from educational curriculum, one from educational administration and the other from educational measurement and evaluation departments. Their observations were used to correct the questionnaire to achieve the desired objectives of the study. The reliability index was 0.84 using the Person Product Correlation coefficient formula (r). The Cronbach alpha was also adopted to reconfirm the internal consistency of the questionnaire which recorded a correlation coefficient value of 0.83. These two values indicated that the instrument is very reliable for use. Two research objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses were respectively formulated to guide the study. The mean and standard deviation statistical tools were used to analyse the data at 2.50 decision mark. The independent z-test was adopted in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 significant level and the result revealed that there is no significant difference between the mean score of teaching and non-teaching staff in the selected public schools in the south-east zone of Nigeria on the effect of curriculum alignment on early childhood frameworks and primary schools’ standards in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the study recommended the establishment of joint review committees involving early childhood and primary education specialists to ensure learning goals, content and pedagogical approaches progress logically across levels.