On Monday 6th September 1976,
the Universal Free Primary Education Scheme (UPE) was launched by General
Olusegun Obasanjo, the then head of the Nigerian military administration at a
simple ceremony at the Oke-Suna Municipal Primary School in Lagos. The decision
by the then Federal Military Government to start universal primary education in
September 1976 and make it compulsory in 1979 was a clear demonstration of good
intention of the government as well as in keeping with the decision of the meeting
of the Addis-Ababa meeting of African Ministers of Education (1961) which
expressed the desire for African countries to achieve universal primary
education by 1980.
The concept of universal free
education stems from the realization that education is not only an investment
in human capital, but also a prerequisite as well as a correlate for economic
development. It was a scheme that was indispensable for progressive leadership
and enlightened society, it aimed at establishing equal educational opportunity for all children
of school age in Nigeria and to gradually eliminate illiteracy and ignorance in
Nigerian society.
The Universal Primary education was
perhaps the most gigantic educational enterprise of the Federal Government of
Nigeria. When the- scheme was started in 1976/77, session eight million pupils
were enrolled in the primary schools throughout the federation. By 1980/81
session, the figure had risen to fifteen million as provided in the next table.
In
preparation for the Universal
Primary Education, the Federal Government had to take to certain
measures of teacher education. The training of primary school teachers took the
form of the following programmes.
5 year course for primary school leavers.
3 year course for S.75 and Modern School
Leavers.
2 year course for Grade III teachers and
candidates with full secondary Education.
1 year
course for holders of West Africa School Certificate.
Like other sectors of the national
economy, primary education in Nigeria faced many problems and stresses. Such
problems range from inadequacy of teaching personnel, country.
The problems of teaching personnel
ranged from teacher quantity, quality, incentive and self-image to the societal
image of the teacher. It was evident with the inception of the U.P.E. programme
that the available teachers could not cope with the staggering number of
pupils. This factor led to the merger of classes under single teacher thus
leading to a disproportionate teacher to pupil ratio. The problems that relate
to teacher incentive cannot be regarded as less important. The problems of
education today are many. A large number of teachers are not committed to the
work. The attrition rale of the leaching profession in alarming. The poor
salary of teachers makes some teachers as temporary income measure merely for
economic survival and not because, they are committed to the job. It is
therefore necessary for government to provide better teacher incentive by was
of improved salary,
housing allowance, transport allowance, vehicle loan as well as avenues for
staff development programmes for primary school teachers.
The infrastructural problems are so
glaring in many stales of the country. The acute shortage of classrooms had fed
to the two or three shift school arrangements in some states. Other places have
had to hold classes I make shift structures including churches, mosques, sheds,
town halls or under tree shades. Another problem is the erection of
sub-standard buildings which collapse after a short time. Such problems develop
from the performance of in-experienced and inefficient indigenous contractors.
They are problems which are not unsurnmounlable and should be regarded as part
of Nigeria's formative experience.
The government should ensure that
the constructions of school building contracts are awarded to reputable
construction firms the problem of financing primary education is a fundamental
one. The Government was initially set to shoulder entirely the W.P.E expenses
but later discovered that it was not feasible. Later, primary education
expenses were shared between the Federal Government, State Governments and
Local Government the Federal and State Governments usually met these
obligations, but some local governments sometimes did not. The problem was worsened
the tendency on the part of the Local Governments to divert educational funds
to other areas. The effect of the problem was that adequate teachers were not
employed, equipment were not provided and text-books were not available.
Following the introductionof the 1979 constitution the Federal Government
ceased to have direct responsibility for primary education. The Federal
Government gave only 15% block gram to Local Governments while the State and
Local Governments assumed the responsibility for primary education. This action
and greatly affected negatively the development of primary education in
Nigeria.
In the area of community
participation, the fact remains that community participation has a salutary
effect on these plan, and those who implement the programme. Success in our
educational endeavour cannot be achieved without a clear programme of public
information and mass support. Under the pressure of public opinion, hoped that
registration of pupils would be greater, contractors would perform better,
publishers and booksellers would work over-time, finance ministry would provide
funds faster, industrial and commercial communities would play their role in
the growth and development of primary education in Nigeria.
In the
area of curriculum development, there is no doubt that a great deal of work has
been done, but there is still room for improvement. The Federal and State
Governments should set up Local Book and Materials Production centres. Such
centres would cater for the development and production of text-books, well as
instructional materials including audio-visual aids.
There is equally the need to revamp
the inspectorate division of the Ministries of education. Inspection of primary
schools is ineffective today because of the few personnel to handle the task.
Inspectorate division should be expanded and personnel trained to ensure that
supervision of education is adequately delivered at the door steps of the local
schools.
Secondary
Education
The development of Secondary
education since independence was influenced by a number of factors. In the
first place, the expansion in primary education led to a greater demand for
secondary education. Secondly was the decision of the governments to implement
the recommendations of the Ashby Commission. Thirdly, Nigeria was implementing
the decision of the African States at the Addis Ababa Conference. Fourthly, the
Dike and the Banjo Commissions had been critical of the content and method of
secondary school curricula in the Eastern and Western Regions respectively and
had recommended improvements.
The most popular secondary education
was the grammar school type which was a five year programme (before the
implementation of the new system the Curriculum was English, Mathematics,
History, Geography, Religious, Knowledge, Fine Art, Biology, Chemistry, Physics
and French.
The comprehensive secondary school
type was taken as the answer to the criticisms against purely literary and
academic secondary schooling. A model at Aiyetoro near Abeokuta and another at
Port Harcourt were set up as pilot projects. The Aiyeloro Comprehensive High
School which was heavily financed
by the Ford Foundation and staffed with Americans and Nigerians was set up so
as to incorporate some of the features of secondary grammar and secondary
technical education. It was planned to contribute towards meeting the manpower
requirements of Nigeria and through its unique/structure and programme, assist
the social, political and philosophical development of Nigerian pupils. Apart
from the basic arts and science subjects the comprehensive high school offered
courses in: Economics, Accounts, Typing and Shorthand, Business Methods,
Cookery, Needle Work, Agriculture, Applied Electronics, Metal Work, Technical
Drawing and Fine Art.
Federal
Government Colleges
The Kings College, Lagos founded in
1909 was the oldest Federal Government Secondary School in Nigeria. The Kings
College catered for the education of; boys while Queen's College
Yaba. Lagos founded in 1927 catered for girls. After independence, the federal
government set up three regions namely Okposi (East) Ward (West) and Sokoto
(North). The intentions ,of the Federal Government for setting up the Federal
Colleges were two fold. Firstly, to serve as model schools and secondly, to foster
Nigerian Unity by bringing together, at'their formative years, children from
different parts of the country and educating them under the same roof. In 1973
Federal Government Colleges were established each at bnugu (to replace: Okposi)
Maiduguri, Ikot-bkpene, Owerri, Kaduna, liorin, Odogbolu, Jos, Port-Harcourt
and Kano. 1974, nine more colleges (all for girls) were established at Oyo,
Abuloma, Bida, Calabar, Benin City, Bauchi, Bakori, NeW Bussa and Kazaure. In
1975, those at Gboko and Ijanikin (Lagos) were flhlfihlifihfirl.1077, ninm
milages wem founderl a I A?aro( Onilqha, Poliskum, Okigwe, Ido-Ani,
Akure and Ogbomoso. In 19/0 more Federal Colleges were established at Sagamu
and Wukari. In 1979. Colleges were founded at Yola, Minna, Ugwolawo and Gusau.
In 1980, two colleges were built at Abuja, one for boys and the other for
girls.
Higller
Education
The development of university in
Nigeria came in the wake of-the Asquith Commission and the Elliot Commission
both in 1943. In 1948, the University College Ibadan was established as a
University College of London and continued in this status till 1963 when it
became a full-fledged University and was renamed the University of Ibadan. The
University of Nigeria Nsukka, patterned after the Land Grant Universities of
the United States of America, was established in October 1961 as a full
university awarding its own degrees. The initiative for the establishment of
the University of Nigeria Nsukka came from the then Government of Eastern
Nigeria. This was followed by three other universities all established in
October 1962 which were outcomes of the Ashby Commission Report of 1960. These
were Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the University of Lagos and the University
of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo .University). It is important to note that at this
lime, Nigeria .consisted-.politically of three regions (North, East and West)
and the federal Territory of Lagos The effect of the location of the
Universities was that in addition to the University College Ibadan each of the
political units now had a University.
Subsequently, increases in the
number of universities in the country have followed closely increases in the
number of political units created. Thus in 1967, Nigeria was reconstituted into
12 states instead of the original 4, (The mid-west Region had been created in
1963). By 1977 the number of Universities had increased to 13, tile eight new
ones being University of Jos (1971) University of Benin (1973) University of
Calabar (1973), University of llorin (1976) Bayero University kano (1977),
University of Sokoto (1977), University of Maiduguri (1977) and University of
Port-Harcourt (977).
In 1976, Nigeria was again
reconstituted into 19 slates instead of 12.
Another significant political event was the return of the country to
civilian rule in 1979 after 13 years
(1966-1979) of military rule. The 1979,
constitution transferred the’ University education from the exclusive to the
concurrent legislative list. This meant
that, apart from
the Federal Government, State Governments who wished could
establish their own universities as was the practice before 1975. the military administration had earlier
made all the thirteen older universities, federal universities. Thus, between
1979 and 1981, the following state universities emerged.
·
Bendel
State University - Ekpbma
·
Anambra
State University of Technology - Enugu
·
Imo
State University - Ekiti
·
Ondo
State University -Ado Ekiti .
·
Ogun
State University - Ago-lwoye.
Rivers Stale University of Science
and Technology, Port-Harcourt Cross-River State University, Uyo. Lagos State
University, ijanikin.
The period
1981 in 1985 witnessed the founding of universities of technology. In 1901/82
session. University of Technology at Bauchi Makurdi and Owerri took off. Those
at Yola and Akure took off in 1982/83. in 1903/04, those at Abeokuta and Minna
were opened. Though in October IJ-L84, four of the Federal Universities of
technology- Bauchi, Yola. Makurdi and Abeokuta were merged with Older
Universities; they have since then regained their autonomy.
Students' enrolments at the
universities increased
astronomically over the
years. The population
of university" students
which was 3.601 in 1962/63 with only five universities rose to well over 92.116
(excluding those in state universities) in 1982/83.
Similar expansions have occurred in
Colleges of education and Polytechnics. Much of these expansions have been on
State initiative and again reflect an anticipation of expected explosion of
secondary school leavers as well as the political need of distributing
amenities to all constituencies.
Two inevitable implications of these
expansions are (1) the financial burden which is so high that some of the
universities staff cannot adequately fulfill some of their statutory roles and
(2) the shortage of academic staff. Perhaps an attempt to solving the problems above is the older
of the National universities Commission for a rationalization of university
programmes.
The extent to which that would go in
solving the problems of quality and relevance in the university education is
yet to be determined.