The teaching of science
in Nigerian schools dated back to the era of
Christian missionaries, who
brought the western education into the
country. With the establishment
of church missionary society (CMS)
grammar school in logos in
1859, roman catholic missionary
(RCM), Wesleyan Methodist mission,
African mission of south Baptist convention, united Presbyterian church of Scotland
mission, the qua Ibo mission, some rudiments of science education were injected into the schools curriculum including arithmetic,
algebra, geometry and
physiology. Missionaries also established other schools namely; grammar,
teacher training , pastoral,
vocational, agricultural and introduction of rudiments of science in school, curricular and teaching of them. The
curriculum consisted of 4RS namely, reading, writing , arithmetic and religion. The hope Waddell institute in Calabar founded in 1861, St. Andrews
College Oyo 1876 , Wesleyan
training institute of
1905, Baptist training
centre, Ogbomoso of
1899 etc had science subjects in
their curricular.
Up to 1932, there was no post secondary institution for the learning of science after
the only specialized institution, the medical school attached to the CMS
theological institute founded at Abeokuta in
1961 , folded up. The
teaching of science gained a
better footing about 1920
because of the recommendation of
an African education commission
toured the British west African
colonies under the sponsorship of the
Phelps stokes fund of America.
The period of 1883
-1930 marked the beginning of
colonial government participation in the
development of science in secondary education. The education ordinance of 1980
marked another phase in the development of science teaching in schools, which made
nature study mandatory in both primary and secondary schools, which latter gave
way to science.
The major development in science curriculum took place
in Nigeria starting from 19321, the
establishment of Yaba College of upgraded 1963 to
Yaba college of technology, to run courses in engineering, medicine, science,
agriculture, survey and teacher training
college fill vacancies
in relevant government developments. It also produced first set of
graduates who taught science in secondary schools and played major role in laying the foundation
for the development of appropriate curriculum for science in the secondary schools
The establishment of
the university college Ibadan in 1948 as college university of London following
the report of the Elliot
Commission Higher education set up in
1943, which reloaded the establishment of a university in Nigeria.
It remained with status of university of
London up to 1960 and started awarding its own
degree and became university of Ibadan
in 1962.
The introduction of
higher school certificate (HSC) in 1951 it
gave schools the opportunities to
offer Chemistry, Biology an Physics at higher
level, with emphasis on laboratory work
to meet the practical requirements
of science subjects. In 1952, an examination board was set up with its
headquarters in Accra, Ghana. This followed Jeffrey report of 1950. The board
later became the west African examination
council (WAEC), which received the curriculum of school
subjects including science , with
its first examination in 1995.
The Science Teacher
Association of Nigeria (STAN), established on the 30th November, 1957, revised the science
curriculum of WAEC and HSC in May
1968. The Federal colleges of
arts, science and technology at Ibadan
in 1950,
Zaria in 1952
and Enugu in 1954 administered a
fairly comprehensive curriculum in
science education and science related fields eg architecture, engineering,
pharmacy etc. these college latter became
O all in 1962, Abu Zaria in 1962 and
UNN in 1960 respectively.
The launching into
space of the satellite “sputnik” by the
soviet union (RUSSIA) in 1957, sparked off science curriculum development efforts in the western world. This led to the
awareness as regards the need to re-examine the
school science curriculum objectives, content and evaluation. In Nigeria
, during early 1960’s
science curriculum was geared towards the fulfillment of overseas examination requirement example
Cambridge school certificate examination or the London general certificate in education.
In recent times, a clear pattern for
science project development at the
primary and junior secondary school
levels has been the integration of subject from the field of science
and technology. At the senior
secondary, the emphasis has been on
inquiry and problem solving activities
Several science
curricular were developed in
many countries such as those of
the physical science study committee (PSSC), chemical education
materials study (CHEM. Study),
biological science curriculum (BSC), all in the US
and the Nuffidd science projects in
the UK.
For Nigeria, the
historic national curriculum conference held from 8th -12th Sept 1969
spurred various bodies including
government agencies to develop science
curricular for both primary and secondary levels of education, which brought about the new NPE of 1977 revised in 1981 which
ushered in 6-3-3-4 system of
education with the following
1. The
Nigerian secondary schools project
(NSSP) by the defunct comparative education study and adaptation centre
(CESAC), now part of NERDC.
2. The
Nigeria integrated science project (NTSP)
3. Basic
science for Nigerian secondary school (BSNSS) by CESAC and Stain
4. Primary
Education Improvement Project: Northern
States Primary School Project (NSPSP) by the Institute of Education,
Abu, Zaria
5. Science
is Discovering: Mid-Western State
Primary Science Project (MSPSP) by
Abaraka College of Education.
6. Primary Education Improvement Project:
Northern States primary science project (WSPSP) by the faculty
of Education OAU.
7. African
Primary Science Project (APSP) by
the African Development Council
8. Lagos State Primary Science Project (LSPSP) by the
Lagos State Ministry of Education.