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.