Local Communities
In general, pre-primary facilities can be categorized as Early Child Development (ECD) centres and day care centers for children aged 0–3 years and pre-primary (nursery) schools for children 3–5 years. The privately-owned centres are run on a commercial, fee-paying basis. The fees charged usually depend on the quality of the teachers and facilities provided. However, the UBE Act (2004) integrated pre-school education into UBE Programme as an essential component, resulting in increased government ownership and participation in pre-school early child development. Every public primary school is now expected to also include a pre-primary/ECC centre which, like the primary school component, should be non-fee paying and serviced free.
An inventory of ECC facilities in Nigeria conducted by FGN/NERDC/UNICEF in 2003 showed that most of the ECC facilities are privately owned (42% of the sample population) and 34% by the government, followed by 21% by local communities. These findings are consistent with the ESA 2003 study, which also indicated a greater private ownership (57%) of ECC facilities, compared to ownership by the government (42%). Now that the Early Childhood Development programme is covered by the UBE law, government ownership at state/LGA/community levels is certain to increase, particularly regarding centres catering for the 3-5 year olds. However the challenge remains as to the role of UBEC and SUBEBS on issues relating to the 0-3 year olds and who, beyond caregivers and communities, should assist on those issues