INFLUENCE OF PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION ON THE SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE ADJUSTMENTS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA.

The study was conducted to find out the influence of Pre-school Education on social and cognitive adjustments of basic one pupil in public primary schools in Jos-South Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), Plateau State. The research design was comparative survey (ex-post factor) research design. The study population was 35, 501 pupils and the sample were 240 pupils. 60 basic one teachers were also selected as samples. Two instruments were used to collect data. These were social adjustment Rating Scale and Cognitive Adjustment Rating Scale. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated and tested using t-test of independent samples at 0.05 levels of significance. The study revealed that pupils with Pre-school Education are more socially and cognitively adjusted than their counterparts without such experience. It also revealed that basic one pupils who had Pre-school have higher Attention and Recall mean scores than those who did not. Based on this finding, the researcher recommended that the federal, state and local government should expedite action in establishing Pre-school programmes in all public basic schools in the JosSouth LGEA and should also enact a law to compel parents to enroll all Pre-school age children in Pre-schools.