The new national policy on education in
Nigeria is associated with a numerical formula 6-3-3-4 which represents the
number of years that a child is expected to spend at various levels of
education. The first 6 stands for six years in the primary followed by three
years at the junior secondary, three years at the senior secondary and four
years at the tertiary levels.
The new system is in conception and
design, a radical departure from the former. British implanted educational
system in Nigeria. A striking feature of colonial education in Nigeria was that
it was guided by the imperial utilitarian considerations. After political
independence, Nigerian educationalists greatly criticized the system which they
claimed did not provide for the acquisition of technological development. The critics
of the former system lamented that the system was not relevant to the
political, economic, social and cultural needs of the Nigerian people. They
therefore concluded that such system could not meet the national need for
self-reliance and sustenance in a growing agricultural state. Thus, a new
system that aimed at acquisition of skills, appreciation of the dignity of
labour, solving the country's problems of illiteracy, manpower shortage and
promotion scientific and technological advancement .Was devised™ No doubt, the
new educational policy in Nigeria aimed at giving the nation a sense of
direction by establishing a system that will embody the nation's aspirations.
The national curriculum conference
of 1969 at which the broaci outlines of the policy were agreed upon was
attended by practically all known leaders in education in Nigeria: whilst
international organizations like UNESCO also participated. The final
conference: at which a National Policy document was drafted in 1973 under the
chairmanship of Chief S.O. Adebo was also attended by education practitioners
from all Ministries of Education and all universities in the .country;
representatives of various interest local organizations including women societies,
National Union of Nigeria Students and so on
Two factors are significant in the
production of the National Policy on education. The firstjs that all known experts of
education were involved and the second is that an exercise which started in
1969 did not produce a final white paper until 1977. The long interval gave enough time, to examine and re-examine the
document that it could not be said that the policy was produced on the spur of
the moment. I was a document that had the benefit of mature judgment and
consideration. More importantly, it is the combined work of the whole country.
The 49 page document which was
revised in 1981 by the Federal Government is presented in thirteen sections
apart from the Introduction. The document begins with general and specific
statements of the orientation and philosophy of Nigeria's educational system.
It therefore examined the various sectors of the formal education system
starting from the pie-primary, primary, secondary, higher education including
professional education, technical, education, adult and non-formal education,
special education, teachers education, educational services, administration and
planning and financing of education. It can thus be seen that the policy was
indeed a very comprehensive one touching on nearly every facet of our national educational
system.
After affirming the Federal
Government's recognition of Education as "an instrument par excellence for
effecting national development" as well as "a dynamic instrument of
change". The document reiterated the five main national objectives as
stated in the Second national Development Plan. These objectives are the
building of:
1. a free and democratic society ;
2. a just and egalitarian society
3. a united, strong and self-reliant
nation
4. a great and dynamic economy :
5. a land of bright and full opportunities
for all citizens.
It further spelt out the values it
believes Nigeria education should inculcate in its recipients. They include:
1. Respect for the worth and dignity of the
individuals:
2. Faith in man's ability to make rational
decisions.
3. Moral
and spiritual values
in interpersonal and
human relations.
4. Shared responsibility for the common
good of society.
5. Respect for the dignity of labour and
6. Promotion of the
emotional, physical and
psychological
health of all children.
The Federal Government in the policy
hopes that these vales can be better inculcated through a well designed
national system of -education whose broad objectives were stated as:
1. The inculcation of national
consciousness and national unity:
2. The inculcation of the right type of
values and attitudes for the survival
of the individual and the Nigerian society;
3. The training of the mind in the
understanding of the world around and
4. The acquisition of appropriate
skills, abilities and competences both mental and physical as equipment for the individual to live in and contribute to the development of this
society.
In pursuance of these objectives,
the documents came up with a number of plans arid proposals which included the
following.
(a) Pre-primary Education will continue to be
provided by private efforts as
regulated
and controlled by the various state and federal ministries of education.
(b) Primary Education will be organized for
children between the ages of 6 and 11 as
to inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy, the ability to communicate
effectively and to lay a sound basis for scientific
thinking.
(c) Secondary education will last for six
years altogether, three years for the
junior secondary and three years for senior secondary. The broad aims of secondary education were two.
Namely
(1) Preparation
for useful living within the society and
(2) Preparation
for higher education.
(d) The curriculum for the junior secondary
will be made up of
(i) Core subjects
(i.e. Mathematics, English,
two
Nigerian
Language, Science, Social Studies, Art and
Music, Practical Agriculture, Religious and Moral
Instruction,
Physical Education and
two Pre-
Vocational
subjects.
(ii) Pre-Vocational! Subjects
(i.e. Woodwork, Metal
Work,
Electronics, Mechanics, Local Crafts, Home
Economics
and Business Studies),
(iii) Non-Vocational Electives (i.e. Arabic studies and
French).
(e) On Completion of the three year junior
secondary, a student may process of
the senior secondary (if he/she is academically inclined) or on the alternative go into an
apprenticeship system or some other
scheme for out-of-school vocational training. ;
(f) The
Senior Secondary which will last for another three years will consist of core subject and electives. The
core subjects are basic subjects which will
enable a student to offer arts of science in Higher Education. There are.
1. English language
2. One Nigerian Language
3. Mathematics
4. One of the following alternative
subjects- Physics, Chemistry and Biology
5. One of literature in English,
History and Geography. In addition, every student will be expected to select 3
electives depending on the choice of
career and may drop one of the electives in the
last year of the Senior Secondary School course.
(g) The sixth form was to be abolished and
pupils would go direct from secondary
school to the university.
(h) The first school leaving certificate
examination will ultimately be abolished and primary school leaving
certificates will be issued by Headquarters of individual schools and will be
based on continuous assessment of pupils and not on the results of a single final examination.
(i) Higher education should aims:
(a) The acquisition, development and
inculcation of the proper value-orientation
for the survival of the individual and society.
(b) The development of the
intellectual capacities of individuals to understand
and appreciate their environments
(c) The acquisition of both physical
and intellectual skills which will enable
individuals to develop into useful members of the community.
(d) the acquisition of an objective
view of the local and external environments
(j) Higher educational institutions should
therefore pursuer their objective through.
(i) Teaching
(ii) Research
(iii) The dissemination of existing and new information
(iv) The
pursuit of service to the community.
(v) Being a storehouse of knowledge,
(k) Technical education should aim among others
at:
(a) Providing trained manpower in
applied science, technology and commerce
particularly at sub-professional grades and,
(b) Providing the technical
knowledge and vocational skills necessary
for agricultural, industrial,
commercial and economical development
(I) Adult and non-formal education should among
others provide functional literacy
education for adults who have never had the advantage
of any formal education and in-service on the job, vocational and professional training for different
categories of workers in order to improve their skills.
(m) The purpose of special education among
others was to provide adequate education for all handicapped children and
adults in order that they may fully play their roles in the ' development of
the nation.
(n) Teacher education should among others aim
at producing highly motivated,
conscientious and efficient classroom teachers for all levels of Nigerian educational system.
Implementation
Strategy
For the implementation of his policy
document, the Federal Executive Council in September 1977 set up an
implementation committee for the National Policy on Education with the
following terms of reference.
(a) to translate the policy into a workable
blueprint and to develop programmes
for the implementation of the policy.
(b) To co-ordinate and monitor the
implementation of those programme developed under the policy;
(c) To
advise Government on and to assist in providing the infrastructure! and other requirements for policy implementation; and
(d) To provide continuous review and
assessment of the aims, objectives and
targets of the Policy (and of those programmes developed under it to our
national needs and aspirations, and to propose modifications on any aspects as
may be found necessary.
Shortly after the
set-up of the Implementation committee at the national level which comprised
the representatives from the Federal Ministry of Education, an Implementation Task
Force on the National Policy on
Education was set up in every stale. The Committee's
first task was to visit and confer with the task forces-during which various
other officials were also met and institutions visited in each state capital.
These tours of the 19 states by the Committee started in October 1977 were
concluded at the end of June, 1978.
A progression of the implementation
Committee's work saw the emergence of the Blue Print in pages comprising of
guidelines for the implementation of the policy. The Committee was specifically
set up to pilot those whose task it is to implement the educational policy. It
was also to obtain a feed-back on progress made and adequate infrastructures
prepared. Thus the difficulties encountered during implementation would be
eliminated in good time in order to facilitate an effective
implementation of the National
Policy on Education.
At Kaduna,
the first workshop on the implementation of the National policy on education
was held from 18th to 20th September 1978 and was
attended by about 70 delegates. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and
harmonize the views of the various state Implementation Task Forces and other
participants on the various sections of the National Policy on Education. Two other
workshops on planning for junior and Senior Secondary Education were held In
Kaduna in April and September 1981 respectively. A workshop on the planning for
Senior Secondary Education was held in Port Harcourt from 14th to 16th
April. 1986 on Transition to Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
Meanwhile, the handing over of power
to the Civilian Government in October 1979 occurred under a new Federal
Constitution. This Constitution had some provisions which were in conflict with
certain aspects of the 1977 edition of the National Policy on Education, it
therefore became necessary to bring the National Policy on education in line
with new Federal Constitution, Early in 1980, the Federal Ministry of Education
set up committee to
undertake the revision exercise and appointed Professor Sanya Onabamiro, the
then Chairman of the Implementation Committee, as Chairman of that Committee.
The report of this committee, as
approved by the Federal Government, came out early in 1981 as a new While Paper
entitled National Policy on Education (Revised).
When the products of the U.P.E. were
admitted into the Junior Secondary Schools in 1982 only the Federal Government
Colleges and ten Stales namely Anambra, Dauchi, Boino, Cross