Abstract
The study investigated common causes of accidents and required safety
practices in pre-primary school classrooms in Enugu state, Nigeria. Three
research questions and one null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance
guided the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The
population for the study was 2,242 pre-primary schools. The sample size
was 400 administrators. Structured questionnaire validated by three experts
was the instrument used for data collection. Data were analyzed with mean,
percentages and t-test. The result showed 14 common causes of accidents in
the classrooms with overall 2.8 to 3.2 accepted by the respondents. There
was no significant difference in the mean responses of administrators on the
causes of accidents in preschools classrooms based on school types (p >
0.05). Only three safety practices were presently adopted in the classrooms:-
provision of adequate child sized facilities, well equipped first aid kits,
installation of safety devices with 66%,63%and 52% respectively.. Thirteen
safety practices outlined were highly rated (81%-97%) required for adoption
in the preschool classrooms. Going by the numerous causes of accidents, the
study recommends effective and timely implementation of the rated safety
practices in the classrooms to ensure safety of all users.