Content area
Full Text
1. History of formal education in Nigeria
The aim of this section is to discuss the history of formal, Western-style, modern education in Nigeria. First, I will describe the situation in educational sector on the eve of independence; then, I will characterize the changes in educational system of the sovereign country.
1.1. Education during the colonial rule
This part of the study should start with the socio-cultural analysis of the impact of Western-style education on Nigerian society. Formal Western education triggered a discontinued socialization process and problems of identity. Children moved away from parental control and met peers at school. They could no longer follow the occupation of their parents; they sought new occupations in the modernizing sector. As children spent more time away from home in boarding schools, the impact of parental control was diminished.
Formal, Western-style education came to Nigeria with the missionaries.2 The first mission primary school was established in 1843 by Methodists, the first secondary school in 1 859, the first agricultural school in 1 876. During these three decades, Methodists and Church Mission Society founded several mission schools, mostly in the southern region. In 1887, they created the first institutional body concerned with education.
Those first educational programmes did not correspond to patterns of African communities.3 They were paternalistic and authoritarian, they ignored local needs of tribal diversity.4 Missionaries taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and gave moral instruction. The object of this earliest "educational programme" was to train catechism teachers, interpreters, servants, and cooks. Schools used to be open from 8 a.m. to 3-4 p.m. This educational stage brought together children from different parts of a province. A very important aspect of the education was inculcating the feeling of discipline. Character-training in colonial school was multi-dimensional. The emphasized aspects of discipline were: personal hygiene, self-comportment and respect for the elders and local authorities. Missionaries used English, as well as local languages in teaching. They believed that the African pupil was best taught in his native, indigenous language5 (in contrast to the colonial inspectors of the schools, who treated native languages as the necessary evil6).
Missionaries were often trying to engage pupils in extra-curricular activities, including sports and celebration of national holidays. They also gave attention to health, promoted gardening and agriculture.7...