The Pre-Independence Era
As we have just discussed, the establishment of the Protectorate of Northern and Southern Nigeria had some great effects on the development of education in Nigeria.There were other events after the establishment of the protectorates. For example, there was the amalgamation of the two Protectorates in 1914 which made Nigeria one country that we now know it to be. We also had the Richards Constitution of 1946 which divided the country into three Regions — North, West and East. With this constitution, each Region now had its own government under the Governor. However, the Richard Constitution did not really meet the desires of the Nationalist then. Therefore, further discussions on how to arrive at an acceptable constitution continued and this led to the 1951 Macpherson Constitution, which gave the Regional Government the power to make laws on education among other things. As Fafunwa (1991) has rightly pointed out the Macpherson Constitution brought about what can be rightly referred to as the era of self- determination in education. This Constitution therefore gave each of the regions the power to go at their own rate as far as the establishment; management and control of educational institutions were concerned. As we shall see later, there were some educational revolutions in some of the Regions, which had lasting effects on the social, economic and political life of the people.
We must not forget that the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate in 1914 did not affect the education system. In other words, the two separate education departments which were in existence for the two Protectorates before the amalgamation were not merged unit 1929. Thus between 1929 and 1946, the educational system of Nigeria was centrally controlled under one Director of Education. As you should expect, it was not easy for just one director to oversee every part of the country. There were agitations for improved educational institutions from the Nationalists on the one hand and the missionaries on the other hand. We could therefore say that the unification of both the Southern and Northern Protectorate in 1914 and the two education departments in 1929 did not bring much development in education.
You can now appreciate the joy and enthusiasm of our people with the Regionalisation of education. The three Regions then started making their own education laws with the Western Regions taking the lead (Taiwo, 1985). As we mentioned earlier on, the Regionalisation of education and the subsequent education laws had positive effects on the development of primary education in Nigeria.
The Western Region in 1955, under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, introduced the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme. It was a great educational revolution in Nigeria, which was the first of its kind not only in Nigeria but in Africa. The enrolment figures in primary schools increased greatly. In the same way, the number of primary schools and teachers were more than double in the Western Region.
The Post Independence Era
The period between 1955 and 1960 witnessed a rapid increase in the number of primary schools as well as teachers and pupils in the western region. As we have already discussed, the regionalisation of education provided a kind of healthy rivalry among the three Regions in all areas of development. However, it appeared all the Regional Governments gave special attention to education. In fact, primary education took the central stage in the educational programme of the regions. This special interest and attention given to primary education may be because of the important role which this level of education plays in the promotion of literacy. Since majority of our people were then illiterates, it was necessary to quickly find a means of reducing or eradicating illiteracy. This may therefore explain why the Regions embarked on various measures to make primary education accessible to all the people. We have just learnt about the introduction of the UPE in the Western Region. A similar programme was introduced in the Eastern Region which started in 1957.We shall discuss more on this when we are talking about the UPE in the next unit. The great vigour with which the people oriented education programmes were pursed after the Regionalisation of education continued even after independence in 1960. The three Regions were increased to four in 1964 with the creation of the Mid-west Region out of the Western Region. Generally speaking the development of primary education in Nigeria after independence was based on the recommendation of the Ashby Commission. The Ashby Commission was set up in 1959 by the Federal Government to look into Nigeria’s need in higher education for a period of twenty years (1960-1980). The Commission had recommended that primary school enrolment in the Northern Region should target 25 percent of children of school age attending school by 1970. However, in the East and the West where the enrolment figures had been relatively high as a result of the UPE programme, it was recommended that in the East, the quality of teachers should be improved while the West was to concentrate on the quality of teaching in the schools (Taiwo 1980).
These recommendations on how to improve enrolment, teachers’ qualification and quality of teaching in our primary schools were effectively pursued in all the Regions. There were appreciable increases in enrolment figures in all Regions. In other to address the problem of quality of instruction in the schools, the Western Region Government set up the Banjo Commission in 1960 to among other things, review the existing structure and working of primary and secondary schools , the adequacy or otherwise of the teacher training programme and the inter- relationship between primary education and secondary education (Taiwo 1982).
Similar bodies were set up in the other two Regions. For example in 1961 the Government of Northern Region appointed Mr. H. Oldman as the sole commissioner to advise on (a) the form which the local contribution to the cost of primary education should take, (b) whether there would be advantages in delegating control of primary education to the Local Education Authority.
In 1962, the Eastern Region Government Authority appointed the Dike Commission to review the educational system of the region. Specifically, the commission was asked to investigate among other things, the organization, administration and management of education in the region, (b) to investigate the arrangement of the curricular of the primary and secondary schools, teachers training, commercial and technical institution in the region.
The civil war 1967 —1970 disrupted the educational system particularly in the Eastern Region. Therefore the civil war period did not record much progress as all efforts were directed at ending the war. As we shall see in the next unit, the post war period witnessed some remarkable development in the development of primary education in Nigeria.
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