LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, PAST ACADEMIC RECORDS, PROXIMITY TO SCHOOL AND QUALIFIED TEACHERS AS PREDICTOR OF PARENTS CHOICE OF SCHOOLS FOR NURSERY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN BENIN METROPOLIS

The study aimed at assessing the contributions of learning environment, past academic records, proximity to homes, and qualified teachers in the parent's choice of school for their children. To achieve this, five research questions were raised. The study population consists of parents/guardians whose children were in nursery schools in Oredo local government area, Edo State. The sample was 400 parents who were conveniently selected from public and private preprimary schools in the local government area. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire which used the four-point Likert scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D), and Strongly Disagree (SD). The instrument was validated by three experts of Measurement and Evaluation at the Institute of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, and it had a reliability index of 0.87. Research questions one to four were answered using simple linear regression while research question five was answered using multiple regression analysis, at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study showed that contributed to and also jointly predicted parents' choice of pre-primary schools for their children. However, proximity to parents' homes was not a significant predictor of parents' choice of pre-primary schools for their children. It was therefore recommended among others that parents should critically examine the school learning environment, teacher's qualifications, and past academic records of schools, before entrusting the care of their children to them.