Assessing Parents’ Opinions and Expectations on Nursery Education for Quality Assurance

Abstract

This study assessed parents’ opinions and expectations on nursery education for quality assurance. Participants were 250 parents, randomly selected from 25 Government approved nursery schools in five local Government area of Osun State. The instrument for collecting data was a self-constructed questionnaire titled “Parents’ opinion and expectations on nursery education”. The questionnaire had three sections. Section I was bio data. Section II had 15 items on opinions while Section III had 15 items on expectations. Each of the items in section II and section III was rated on a four – point scale namely: strongly agree=4, agree=3, disagree=2, strongly disagree=1 with reliability coefficient estimated at 0.67 using spilt halt method to test for internal consistence. Data were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics tested at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that parents’ opinions on nursery education were favourable and expectation very high. The correction between parents’ opinions and expectations was high and positive while socio-economics status of parent had no significant difference on their opinions and expectations. It was recommended that parent and government should monitor teaching activities in nursery schools for quality assurance.

Key words: parents, opinions, expectation, nursery education, quality assurance.