IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE NIGERIAN CHILD: CASE STUDY OF PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN A NIGERIAN REGION

Early childhood Education

The study was on impact of covid-19 pandemic on the Nigerian child: case study of primary school children in a Nigerian region. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and was conducted in South East Nigeria. The population for the study consisted of 184 early childhood education lecturers in South East Nigeria. The total population was involved in the study since the population was manageable. A 20 item questionnaire was developed from literature and used to obtain data for the study. The questionnaire was validated by seven experts in early childhood education while the reliability yielded 0.79 coefficient using Cronbach Alpha. The questionnaire was administered on 184 respondents and there was 91% return rate which equates to 168 early childhood education lecturers. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of probability. The findings revealed 10 impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the educational activities and 10 impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of primary school children in the area. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that; In as much as face to face meeting is important in learning for young learners, the government for the time being should provide the resources such as stable electricity and ICT facilities required for interactions between the pupils and their teachers; and care givers should encourage children to continue to play and socialize with others, even if only within the family when advised to restrict social contact.

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