Professional Design of a Parent-Teacher Engagement Model for Urban ECD Centres in Abuja

Urban parents in Abuja's ECD centres frequently disengage from their child's early education due to work demands and inadequate centre engagement strategies, and designing a structured parent-teacher engagement model addresses this gap for the Federal Capital Territory. This study designed a parent-teacher engagement model for urban ECD centres in Abuja Municipal Area Council and Garki, Federal Capital Territory. A professional model design methodology was applied, drawing on an engagement barriers survey of 150 parents, structured consultations with 20 ECD centre managers and 8 family engagement specialists, and benchmarking against NAEYC family engagement guidelines and models from urban ECD contexts in Ghana and South Africa. Survey results confirmed that time constraints (cited by 68 percent), work schedule conflicts (61 percent), and inadequate communication methods (47 percent) were the primary engagement barriers for Abuja urban parents. The model designed specifies four engagement levels: information sharing (digital weekly updates), participation (scheduled flexible volunteer opportunities), collaboration (joint learning planning contributions), and governance (centre advisory board membership). Flexible scheduling provisions, digital communication channels, and multilingual communication options are incorporated. Expert review by 10 family engagement and ECD specialists confirmed the model's urban practicality. Recommendations include piloting the model at 15 ECD centres with 12-month evaluation, integration into the FCT Ministry of Education ECD quality standards, and annual parent satisfaction surveys as a programme accountability measure.

Keywords: parent-teacher engagement, urban ECD centres, Abuja, family involvement model, early childhood