Effect of Early Childhood Education on Cognitive Development of Pupils in Lower Primary Education in Rwanda

Abstract

Enrolling in early childhood education plays a significant role in cognitive development of pupils in lower primary education. This implies that the lower level of cognitive development of pupils in lower primary school can be experienced by children who did not attend early childhood education. The objective of this paper was to establish the effect of ECE on cognitive development of pupils in lower primary education in Kamonyi district in Rwanda. This paper employed correlation research design. The target population was 260 people corresponding to the sample size of 158 respondents that was obtained by using Solvin’s formula. Questionnaires and guided interviews were used as data collection instruments. The findings revealed that that the average of 13.52% of teachers agreed on accessibility, affordability and availability of early childhood education in Kamonyi district and the  majority of respondents agreed on affordability of ECE schools in Kamonyi district as was presented by the mean of 2.85 and the standard deviation of 1.31. It was also found that the average of 14.7% of teachers agreed that pupils in lower primary education in Kamonyi indicate a standard level of cognitive development and the majority of 29.5% of teachers with the mean of 2.79 and the standard deviation of 1.36 agreed that there is a standard level of reasoning in lower primary education in Kamonyi district. The results showed that parental involvement is able to affect is 26.5% of the variations in the cognitive development of pupils in lower primary education in Kamonyi district and the remaining 73.5% can be explained by other factors.  The study concluded that there is a statistical significance relationship between the variables of early childhood education and those of cognitive development of pupils in lower primary education. This study recommended that parents should be encouraged to enroll their children in ECE and teachers should improve their teaching approaches so as to improve children’s intellectual capacity.

Keywords: Cognitive development, early childhood, early childhood education and lower primary education.