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 palce
in nigieira strating from 19321, the
establsihement of yaba college of upgraded
1963 to yaba college of
technology, to run coruses 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 Idadan 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
nigieria integrated science project (NTSP)
3.
BASIC
SCIENCE FOR NIGIEIRAN 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.