Developing a Quality Assurance Framework for Private Early Childhood Education Centres in Lagos State

The rapid proliferation of private early childhood education centres in Lagos has outpaced regulatory quality monitoring, and developing a fit-for-purpose quality assurance framework addresses a critical governance gap in South West Nigeria. This study developed a quality assurance framework for private ECD centres in Lagos State, drawing on regulatory assessments of 50 private centres in Ikeja, Alimosho, and Lagos Island LGAs, structured consultations with 20 ECD proprietors and 10 Lagos State Education Quality Assurance Agency officers, and benchmarking against the national ECCE Policy standards and international ECD quality frameworks from Kenya and Ghana. Assessment confirmed that 68 percent of assessed centres lacked documented curriculum plans and 72 percent had never undergone formal inspection. The quality assurance framework developed specifies 12 domain standards encompassing physical environment, curriculum delivery, staff qualifications, health and safety, caregiver-child interaction, family engagement, inclusion, and management practices. An inspection tool, compliance rating scale, and improvement action plan template are included. Expert review by eight ECD specialists and regulatory officers confirmed the framework's practical applicability. Recommendations include the Lagos State Ministry of Education adopting the framework as the mandatory private ECD inspection standard, annual inspection cycles for all registered centres, and a public quality rating publication to enable informed parental choice in the rapidly expanding Lagos ECD market.

Keywords: quality assurance, private ECD centres, Lagos State, inspection framework, early childhood regulation