Early Childhood and School Adjustment among Primary School Pupils in Nasarawa West Senatorial District, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The study examined Early Childhood and school adjustment among primary school pupils in Nasarawa West Senatorial Districts, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The study had two (2) objectives, two (2) research questions and corresponding null hypotheses. The study employed a survey research design and the population of the study is 54,062 primary IV pupils from 625 public primary schools in Nasarawa West Senatorial Districts, Nasarawa State out of which a sample size of 381 pupils was selected using Multi stage sampling procedure. An instrument tagged “Early Childhood Education and Pupils’ School Adjustment (ECE & PSA)” was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was presented to three experts for content and construct validity which gave a validity index of 0.86. The instrument was further pilot tested at Central Pilot School Garaku using Richards Kuder son reliability method which yielded a reliability index of 0.79. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed a significant positive relationship between play-based learning and school adjustment of primary school pupils in Nasarawa West Senatorial Districts, Nasarawa State. The results also showed a significant positive relationship between socio- emotional learning and school adjustment of primary school pupils in Nasarawa West Senatorial Districts, Nasarawa State. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that early childhood education has a significant impact on children, giving them a solid foundation in primary/lower basic school and positively influencing their primary school adjustment as well as their academic achievement later in life. The study therefore recommended among others that there is need for training and retraining of early childhood education teachers by the Nasarawa State Government on how to effectively and successfully carry out the play based learning in their respective classrooms.