摘要：Since research has shown that high quality preschool education is associated with improved school readiness, better school performance, higher graduation rates, lower crime and delinquency and decreased welfare dependency then it is worth knowing how much is spent on such an educational programme per child per annum. One thousand parents of kindergarten pupils during the period 2004/2005 session formed the sample of this study. The study adopted the ex post facto research design. Simple percentage, averages and rank order were the statistical tools adopted for the analysis of data. The study prima facea revealed that parents spent N 46, 450 (forty six thousand, four hundred and fifty naira) in order for their children to get kindergarten one education (KG 1) per child per annum in private schools. KG II was N 48, 150 and KG. III was N50, 380. In all the programmes, school fees ranked first among the items of cost constituting over 30% of the total private cost. Also revealed is that among the three classes of KG I, II and III, academic costs were higher than incidental costs. The paper recommends the need for government to appropriate a percentage of the Education Tax Fund (ETF) to pre-school education to enable her make pre-school education affordable for all the children.
