CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.01 General Background Of the project design;
Throughout history, education has always been
man’s most important activity. Infect, man cannot carry on government, family
life, religion or earn a living without some form of education. School then is
a shelter and a stage that brings people together on daily business, generating
intellectual abilities in life and growing up.
Education
can be the transmission of values and accumulated knowledge of a society or the
process by which an individual gains skills. Social scientists term it socialization
or enculturation. In this context, education shall be defined as “the process
in which an individual acquires skills and knowledge of the society in which it
is found.”
There
are two basic forms of education- Formal and Informal. Formal education is
acquired through organized study or instructions. Informal education arises
from day-to-day experiences or through relatively unplanned contacts.
Education
is designed to guide every child in learning a culture which he/she was born
without, molding his behavior towards his adulthood and eventual role in
society.
In
prehistoric period, education was direct and simple because children initiated
what adults did. Each tribe developed certain customs, beliefs and ways of
doing things. Education consisted of handing down these folkways from the
elders to the young. No schools or teachers in our sense of the words existed
(informal education). In early civilization about 3,000 years Before Christ,
written languages were created in Middle East and India, and man could now keep
records of basic knowledge, beliefs and important
customs. When written languages appeared,
the school as a special institution for educating the young also appeared.
Priests in the religious temples or scribes connected with the king’s offices
served as the first teachers.
Education was restricted to a smaller privilege
and the purpose was to teach a limited number of boys to read and write, learnt
how to keep records of laws, religious beliefs, contracts and business
transactions. Girls did not usually to go school.
Children sometimes learnt a trade
outside school, by a system of direct apprenticeship to a master craft.
Brief History Of Education, In Nigeria;
There exist three
types of education in Nigeria. Indigenous (informed), Muslim, and western (Christian)
education. The oldest is the indigenous education.
A) Indigenous
Education;
The Nigerians
indigenous education is as comprehensive in scope as any known system of education
though the goals and method of achieving it may differs. It is not
institutional rather it is giving anywhere and at any time without a strict
time table. For example children learn farming, wrestling, and carving, not
only while at work but also during period of recreation. Moreover, they are no
special class of people called teacher. The entire community is involved in the
education of the child.
Object such as development of character
inculcation of respect for elders, intellectual development and the promotion
of skills lead to vocation suitable for their later life are also emphasized.
At the age of
eight, specialization would have started. Girls are oriented to become good
house wives later, boy’s good farmers, hunters, and carvers and so on. Various agencies
such as age group join in the training.
a) Muslim
Education;
Islam was
first introduced in Bornu during the 11th century Before Christ. By
the 14th century it had spread to Hausa land. The system of
education which accompanied is divided in three. The first phase begins at the
age of five when young Muslim are sent to the “piazza” school where they are
thought to memories the Koran in well
drawn out stages. They learn how to perform religious duties in or outside the neighborhood.
The second phase begins with a more
meaningful study of the Koran, grammar, literature, poetry. Islamic laws and so
on. A few advanced students are known to have undertaken the study of
astrology, divination and medicines.
The third
phase is the continuation of the second phase, the curriculum is much wider,
including grammatical inflexion, syntax, arithmetic, algebra, jurisprudence and
others.
b) Western (Christian) Education;
This was found by Christian
missionary, the church missionary society (C.M.S) the united Free Church, the southern
Baptist convention, Roman Catholic mission (R.C.M) etc.
Christianity
was introduces in Nigeria in respond to the invitation of some Yoruba emigrant
who wanted missionaries to come and instruct them. In 1842 Thomas birch free of
the Wesleyan Methodist missionary society landed in Badagry from the Gold coast
and immediately established a mission. The enthusiasm with which he was received
encouraged another mission, the church missionary society, to send a party the
same year. By 1846, Christianity had been planted also in Abeokuta and between
1842 and 1900 attempts had been made by various other missions to establish
themselves in various part of the country.
With
the introduction of Christianity western type of education naturally follows as
it was a common strategy that as soon as a station was established, one of the
first facilities to be provided was a school to recruit young ones who were belief
to easily be attracted. Parents favors the school more than the religious because of the opportunity of learning useful
skills like Arithmetic , reading and writing English and portages. The materials
for reading are provided from chapters in the bible.
These
bodies played important roles in charting the pattern of educational
development in the country.
In 1903 the southern Nigerians
provinces where blessed with a department of education which caught the
interest of government in designing and implementing educational policies that
would enhance colonial and imperial interests. Emphasis where placed on the
production of man power, oriented towards the servicing of the machinery of colonial
administration and providing support services to commercials and economic
imperialists.
The early missionaries were
interested in the production of indigenous families who would help in the
propagation of western religion. Hence they educational contents formed an
important socialization strategy. They aim at producing educating Nigerians who
nevertheless are subservient mentally and psychologically. Colonialism could
not reach the desirable level of perfection without this development and so the
colonialist intensified their efforts in this direction by giving the
missionaries necessary encouragement.
When the British left Nigerian in
1960, they left behind an educational situation which exhibited the following
features and problems;
a) The production of mentally subservient Nigerians
b)
Excess
production white collar applicant and workers
Little emphasis on technical and trade education 
