It is an undeniable fact that education is one of the indispensable tools for national development. Education as a vital instrument for national and sustainable development and it involves the acquisition of fundamental knowledge and essential development skills needed for technological breakthrough and socio-political development which accelerates economic growth. The development of an educational system that is knowledge based both in structure and functionality requires the inclusion of entrepreneurship education in early childhood education. Early childhood is children from 0 –5⁺years of age. In this age, the child’s brain develops rapidly to 80 percent so as to receive and absorb a variety of information. Experts say that it is called the golden age of a human being which all the physical, mental, and spiritual development of the child are formed.

Childhood is the earliest period of human life, started at the time of birth and ended at the time of adulthood. It is a very decisive period of human life, having certain characteristics and potentials which become the basis for growth in the future [1]. Thus, early childhood education should be able to form the strong trait, character, and personality of children in order to achieve their success in the future. The character of being independent, intelligent, creative and confident can be learnt through examples given. For instance, to develop independence in children, parents prepare and carry their own briefcase. This example someday will make children imitate to be independent which is consistently shown by his parents. The character will be formed through what they see, they hear, and they feel.

Moreover, the expected characters of children do not necessarily appear, but require gradual training. Hence, it is necessary to habitually implanted to them. This can be started from simple activities in everyday life, such as putting the toys away after playing and washing hands before   eating. This habit will cultivate characters including discipline and responsibility. Some efforts are needed to build the traits and characters as expected. Parents and teachers as educators should take a role in motivating, evaluating, stimulating and appreciating their children. However, in reality they still have not given enough roles yet in shaping the characters. Sometimes parents threaten, dictate, criticize, and limit their children. As a result, the children are not willing to express their opinion. Similarly, teachers at schools, even though the teachers have done the process of instilling the characters, it still has not been internalized well in children.

Such phenomenon shows that the instilling character in children by educators is still not optimal. One of the educational services to build characters is entrepreneurship education [1]. Children are trained to be able to recognize their own potential, to manage time, to be able to communicate, to able to control emotions and to be flexible in choosing and making decisions. The entrepreneurial spirit can be instilled by parents and teachers when their children are at an early age. Through entrepreneurial education sustainable development has become a significant issue for all well-meaning administrations of countries across the globe [2-3]. As such, a series of strategies and programmes have been identified and structured towards the development of the mentality of entrepreneurship across all sectors in these administrations across the globe. According to Kuratcko due to its impact on the growth of economies and sustainable development via entrepreneurial drive and persistence it is fast becoming a central point of economies globally.

In furtherance to this, the Human Development Index (HDI) an indicator that determines the wealth of any nation does not speak well of Nigeria with Nigeria ranking 152^nd position according to this index [4]. As such, it must be highlighted poverty and unemployment continues to rise although new educational reforms have been introduced by the government such as the introduction of 34 trade subjects that include catering, arts and craft, cosmetology, garment making to mention but a few. As a consequence, entrepreneurship education remains a panacea for sustainable development. This paper therefore places its focus on the following: concept of early childhood, entrepreneurship, concept of sustainable development, entrepreneur for early childhood, entrepreneur-based programmes, conclusions and recommendations.

Early Childhood Education

The term early childhood education refers to group settings deliberately intended to effect developmental changes in children from birth to the age of entering primary school [5]. It is also the care, promoted in children from learning years in a creche or nursery [6]. Early childhood is children aged 0-5⁺ years old and in the golden age, where the development of the child’s brain reaches 80% of the overall brain development until adulthood later [7]. Early childhood education is the first and foremost part of the children’s development in terms of character, physical, cognitive, linguistic, artistic, social, emotional, spiritual, self-discipline, self-concept, and self-reliance. Therefore, it is necessary to set up the right environment so that it can provide an opportunity for children to explore various experiences with different situations and it is also necessary to pay attention to the uniqueness of children and it should be adjusted to the stage of development of the child’s personality. Early childhood education can serve as a mirror to see the success of children in the future. Children who get good educational services from an early age have a greater hope in achieving success in the future. On the other hand, children who do not get adequate educational services require considerable struggle to develop their success [8].

Concept of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the creative and innovative ability that is used as the basis, tips, and resources to find opportunities for success. The essence of entrepreneurship is the ability to create something new and different through creative thinking and innovative action to create opportunities. In the past, entrepreneurship was deemed to be done only through direct experience in the field and was an innate talent so entrepreneurship could not be learned and taught. Now that understanding has changed. Entrepreneurship is a separate discipline because it contains a complete and real body of knowledge which has objects, concepts, and methods. The discipline of entrepreneurship has rapidly grown. Initially, entrepreneurship was applied in the field of trade, but later it developed in other fields such as industry, government, health, and education. Entrepreneurship has become the core competency in creating change, renewal, and progress.

In the field of education, entrepreneurship aims to foster entrepreneurship spirit in students so that in the future it can create entrepreneurs. However, the integration of entrepreneurship education in the learning process itself is an internalization of entrepreneurial values in learning activities. The values developed in entrepreneurship education are the development of values from the characteristics of entrepreneurs that should be owned by the learners. Some of the entrepreneurial values along with their descriptions will be integrated through entrepreneurship education in table 1.

Concept of Sustainable Development 

The term “sustainable development” was initially coined in 1972 during the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and later gained prominence by way of a report to the United Nations by the “World Commission on Environment and Development” which was chairpersoned by the Prime Minister of Norway “Gro Harlem Brundtland” [10]. Sustainable development entails that resources that are renewable should be employed in every possible situation and resources that are non-renewable should be used rarely in order to ensure their viability for the future generations to come [11]. Sustainable development entails the designing of a social and economic system that ensures that standards of education continue to improve, the rise in the real income is maintained, the economic growth of the nation continues to improve as well as other aspect of life continues to increase [12].

Table 1: Values and Description of Values of Entrepreneurship Education

Source: Agus [9]

        This cannot occur if the right type of education is not given to individuals. Sustainable development can be viewed in three dimensions namely; Economic, environmental and social [13]. The goals of sustainable development include:

• End of poverty in all its forms across boards

• Establish infrastructures while promoting inclusive and sustainable commercialization while fostering innovations.

• Ensure healthy lives and promotion of well-being for all.

• Guaranty equal and inclusive education while promoting long-lasting learning opportunities for all.

• Ensuring gender equity and empowerment of females

• Guarantee available and sustainable management of water and sanitation for everyone

• Available employment for everyone across boards.

• Mitigate the inequality within and among nations.

• Ensure that cities and settlement are safety conscious, inclusive and sustainable.

• Guarantee sustainable consumption and production patterns.

• Embark on actions that tackle climate change its implications.

• Preserve and sustainable employ oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

• Provision of access to justice while building accountable and inclusive institutions at alllevel of governance

From these goals mentioned above it can be deduced that the objective sustainable is focused on reconciling the issues of economic development that is necessary for higher standard of living with that of enhancing with the challenges being faced in the Nigerian space today. Hence, entrepreneurship can aid in fostering sustainable development.

Entrepreneur for Early childhood 

Entrepreneurial education in schools is not just about motivations and skills needed to start-up a business or a new venture, it is about nurturing the ability and willingness of individuals to create value for themselves, for others and for society. Initiative and entrepreneurship form a key transversal competence, which can be effectively promoted through education. The idea of promoting entrepreneurship through education has spurred much enthusiasm in the last few decades in expectance of a wide range of outcomes, such as individual development, increased school engagement and performance, enhanced courage to contribute to societal development, improved equality, as well as job creation, economic growth and increased societal resilience. Turning this into educational practice, is, however, posing significant challenges to teachers, and school management and external partners in creating creative and open learning environments.

Key enablers and barriers lie in teaching and learning environments. Lack of time, learning materials and financial resources, the fear of teachers and parents of "commercialism", rigid institutional frameworks, and challenges to assess learning outcomes of entrepreneurial education are some of the challenges practitioners are encountering. Effective environments are constituted by the right combination of leadership and flexibility, resources, incentives and professional development opportunities for teachers, innovative pedagogies and constructive involvement of pupils into education, as well community engagement, involvement of businesses and entrepreneurs in teaching and learning, authentic learning and local curricula.

Introducing entrepreneurship in school could affect children’s views on entrepreneurship, and childhood is considered the ideal stage to educate and develop a positive attitude towards it. Additionally, preschool constitutes the take-off for the evolution of the entrepreneurial self, and childhood has been considered to be the most appropriate age group to acquire positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship and to adopt an entrepreneurial approach [14]. Growing the entrepreneurial spirit in early childhood is basically more on building the traits and characters of being independent, responsible, optimistic, and not easily giving up. Therefore, entrepreneurship learning in early childhood can be integrated into the curriculum through programmes or activities designed by schools which the implementation involves not only principals, teachers and children but also involving parents.

To cultivate strong traits and characters as expected, according to Mursid [15] learning for early childhood should take into account the following principles:

• Children as active learners: Education should lead children to become active learners. Creatively designed education will produce an active learner. The process of education like this is a form of learning that relies on active learning activities or known as the Student Active Learning (CBSA = Student Active Learning)

• Children learn through sensory and senses: Children gain their knowledge with their sensory, they can see with their eyes, they can hear the sound with their ears, they can feel hot and cold with their touch, they can distinguish the smell with their nose and they know the different tastes with their tongue. Therefore, learning in children should lead children to the various abilities that can be performed by all senses.

• Children build their own knowledge: Children are allowed to learn through their experiences and their knowledge that they have experienced since they were born and they have gained during their life.

• Children think through concrete objects: Children need to learn with real objects so that they are not confused. It means they are stimulated to think with learning methods that use real objects as examples of learning materials.

• Children learn from the environment: Education is a conscious effort which is done deliberately and planned to help children develop their potential optimally so that they are able to adapt to the environment.

The establishment of the entrepreneurial spirit especially in children does not occur in a short time, but it takes time as the child's development process. They can be directed to form their entrepreneurial spirit. The formation of the entrepreneurial spirit is not an activity to form a child to become an entrepreneur directly, but it can be directly or indirectly internalized to the child. The internalization of entrepreneurial spirit at the stage of preschool can be conducted with various methods of games. The purpose of this game is not shaping the skills of the child’s business directly but forming the specific character needed to become a successful entrepreneur later. For example, children are asked to sing while crossing the wooden bridge. This stimulates the courage of children to take risks for the purpose to be achieved. Similarly, when they are grown-up, an entrepreneur should be able to take   risks for    the development    of his    business [16]

Entrepreneur-based Programs

In order to realize the goals of early childhood education for sustainable development in Nigeria teachers and parents must develop various programs. The entrepreneur-based programs that aim to direct and introduce entrepreneurial values are as follows according to [16]:

• Entrepreneur Stimuli: Entrepreneur stimuli are activities that stimulate the mindset of children to become entrepreneurs. The activities are daily given to the children through daily learning activities such as building blocks that is making high and luxurious apartment buildings so that later they become an apartment businessman or any other building that children want according to their ideas. Also, children are invited to elaborate their ideas, projects, interests or goals, within a context where they experience total freedom and confidence. Children’s initial statements are crucial to build communities based on common interests. It is also intention that children are introduced to a culture in which the public presentation of interests and the sharing with others with similar interests are opportunities for work development. For example (task for children 3-6 years old) - A story about a child who loves drawing and how he/she took part in doing an exhibition of his/her drawings. Afterwards the teacher talks to the children about what they love to do. The teacher writes the children’s statements on the board and children are asked to draw their own ideas.

• Visit a Farm: Visit a farm is a program of outing or visit to the animal farms to introduce the world of entrepreneurs in children. In this activity, a lot of entrepreneurial value that can be given to children such as being brave, confident, creative to mention business opportunities, and visionary that the child can have big dream such as being a dairy businessman.

• Visit to Bank: A visit to the bank is a program that can introduce the meaning of money to children. The activity includes visiting every teller and customer service. Their children can ask what the teller and customer service do. In addition, children are also introduced ATM and how to do transactions using ATM. In this activity, the children know the use of money, kinds of money and how to use it. Besides they learn to be efficient and to love saving money.

• Outing to Culinary Entrepreneurs: Outing to culinary companies is a visit activity to introduce children to culinary entrepreneurs. It starts from visiting the place, introducing the product and how to make it until participating directly to make the product. Then the children are also introduced to how the marketing process of the product runs. This visit aims to provide knowledge to children about how to be a manager of a creative and innovative culinary company instead of being a worker and a company's labor. Children can more develop ideas and business opportunities as they wish.

• Cooking learning Activity: This is a set of activities that every child awaits. In this activity, the participants are taught how to cook, starting from introducing raw materials, tools used for cooking, cooking practice until how to organize and serve food.

• Visit to Market: Visit to the market day is thenext activity. It is a macro role-play activity that can be held at school. In this activity they act as sellers and buyers like in the market, either traditional market or modern market. This activity aims to provide experience directly to the child to become an entrepreneur or a trader. In this activity children are required to be brave, Independent, able to communicate with the public and able to promote products in the form of goods that they bring from home. With this activity they do not feel like they are learning, but they consider it as a fun activity.

Entrepreneurship education has continued to be critically discussed topic among scholars and the corporate world as a result of its impact on sustainable development. Its Impacts will be better felt amongst developing nations across the globe where there is urgent need for transition into a development economy as a result of its devastating impact on health, security and finance. It has therefore become apparent that entrepreneurship can be taught and that countries who seek to continuously develop most adopt entrepreneurship education. Nigeria is no exception and there is no better time than presently if the nation is to overcome its present economic woes and transition into a developed culture so as not to jeopardize the future of generations to come. Nigeria can key into the Economic survival theory which highlights that entrepreneurship is encouraged by those impacted by unpleasant circumstances in life. 

Learning activities to introduce and in still the values of entrepreneurship in children can be implemented through entrepreneur-based programmes, such as entrepreneur stimuli, visit to farm, bank, market, outing to culinary entrepreneurs and cooking learning activity. All learning activities from the beginning to the end are done in accordance with the principles of learning for early childhood and directed towards the achievement of learning objectives. Entrepreneurial values instilled through those activities are creative, unyielding, action-oriented, hardworking, honest, resilient, imaginative, inquisitive and communicative.

Recommendations

The suggestions of this study are addressed to: 

• This research identifies the importance of entrepreneurship in the growth and advancement of developing countries which Nigeria is one of them. It is imperative therefore that the Nigerian government should urgently provide materials and well-furnished and equipped capacity building centers   for teaching   in institutions   of   learning.

• The Nigerian Government and other relevant stakeholders must ensure that educational programme across all levels of education are relevant so as to provide children, youths and graduate with the necessary skills to go into entrepreneurship.

• The school should pay attention and organize the existing infrastructure of the school so that the learning process through the activity programs that have been made can be more optimized.

        Teachers should develop self-capacity with an additional set of knowledge and skills through seminars andworkshops.

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