Evaluation and Assessment Practices in Early Childhood Care: A Theoretical Approach to Training

The roles of caregivers in early childhood education and care unit in Nigerian education sector is enormous, as this level forms the foundation of the education a pupil will be exposed to in his or her life time. It is important therefore for the caregivers to know how to accurately assess their pupils because the information generated at this level represents the placement of individual pupils in future educational level. Base on the above premise, no responsibilities is more important or more central to the work of the caregivers than that of assessing pupils’ performance accurately and not only just on the paper and pencil system of assessment that is common in our educational system. Thus, this paper explores the following items: (1) meaning of measurement, (2) assessment, (3) evaluation, (4) comparism between formative and summative evaluation, (5) method of assessment and evaluation in early childhood education and care, (6) purpose of assessment and evaluation in early childhood education and care, and (7) the need for periodic evaluation in early childhood education and care. After the analysis of these items the article recommends: (a) there should be periodic workshop for caregivers on how to efficiently assess and evaluate their pupils’ performance progress, (b) the objective of each unit of instruction must be clearly stated for accurate evaluation of the predetermined change in behaviour of the pupils, (c) adequate logistic should be provided for effective assessment and evaluation to enhance desirable pupils’ performance.