AFRICAN INDIGENOUS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION / CURRICULUM


AFRICAN THINKERS COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY
 
COURSE TITLE:
HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION

            African indigenous education was a life long process of learning where by a person progressed through predetermined stages of life of graduation from cradle to grave. This implies that African indigenous education was continuous throughout life from childhood to old age.

            It can also be defined as a process of passing among the tribal members and from one generation to another the inherited knowledge, skills, culture traditions, norms and values of the tribe.
            Education existed for as long as human beings started living in their societies in Africa. This type of education is known as indigenous African education or traditional African education. This is a type of education where one learns how to survive in life through experiences and instruction from the elders by adapting to the environment. Individuals acquire most of their knowledge skills attitudes and values through informal education, that is in the home, from the media,  on the street etc African education was based on their social need of the people in a particular society. It was preparing people to Africans for a better life in the society.
            African indigenous education vary from one place to another, the goals of these systems are often striking. This looked mainly at the role of an individual in society. African indigenous education was organized and administered the way the learners could easily adapt to it. Administration was done by the elders, who determine what was best for their generation and those generations to come. The education was mainly towards the inculcation of good morals. The content of indigenous education had much stress on the communal and social aspect rather than on an individual. This was done mainly to prepare boys and girls for adult life in households, villages and tribes. That is why this type of education provided was static. This mean that it was unchanging from generation to generation in other words it was conservative with little innovation. Thus it was the same education that was practiced over and over for years.

OBJECTIVE OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION
1.         Physical skills Development:      
            The child is exposed to so many locomotor activities in their environment. E.g walking, jumping, hopping, climbing, running, dancing etc which develop their physical skills.
2.         Character and Moral Training 
            Home etiquette: children are taught from early stages of their life to respect and greet their elders different Nigerian culture have different approaches – Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo etc. The child’s behaviour are watched and moral lapses are severally punished such as age grade beating which accompany offences like theft, adultery and fornication remind the child that the better behaves at any point in time.
3.         Intellectual and Social Skills Development      
            The child’s intellectual and social skills are developed in the following set ups.
(a)              History or story telling sessions about tribal wars and their associated heroes.
(b)              Geography: they learn the names of important rivers, valleys, Hills Mountains.
(c)              Medicine: they learn the names of certain leafs and herbs with medicinal powers.
(d)              Mathematics: they are engaged in counting or dividing seed-yams and farm land.
(e)              Agriculture: cultivation, planting and harvesting of crops.
(f)               Health education: chew sticks to clean their teeth, bath, sweep compounds, market squares and water sources.
(g)              Architecture and building technology
(h)              Drama and music
(i)                Home economics
4.                  Vocational training through occupation of their parents or as apprentice e.g farming, hunting, carving, weaving, blacksmithing etc.
5.                  Cultural heritage and belonging: ceremonies and festivals are watched e.g. marriage, naming, funeral, coronation and other festival.

CURRICULUM OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION
            Indigenous education curriculum consists of all that the community is prepared to pass on to its younger generation as identified in the objectives.
1.         Methodology
The apprenticeship or the formal approach: In specialized skills or trade like professional divination or the seer, the secrets of the art and their incitation which must accompany them must be taught and learnt very carefully.
            In initiation ceremonies, male and female adolescents are brought to the forest and camped separately. Experienced older men and women stay with their respective groups and teach them some of the adult roles they were soon going to play. This was rounded off by initiating them through certain painful activities into adulthood and weak ones are disqualified or dropped. All or some sections of the information given to them while in camp and were expected to be kept secret or face death approach.

2.         The Formal Approach 
            Most indigenous education went on in an informal way. Teachers are not aware that they are teaching and children learnt merely through observation and imitation.

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