An Assignment on a Comparative Analysis of Nigeria’s Education Policy With the Education Policies of Ghana, Finland, and Norway
Chapter One
PREAMBLE OF THE STUDY
Education may be regarded as a method of leading people out of ignorance. It is a means of socializing human beings. It involves the brining up of a child in the community and constantly training him to adjust himself to the changing world around him. It is a lifelong process. Education is varied in its content and method as there are different societies in the world. The aim of education varies from time to time and from place to place. What one age cherishes as wisdom may be regarded by another as folly. The aim of education is a country should therefore be a reflection on the national aspiration of the people. This can be based on the experience gained from the past history of the people and their future expectations of themselves.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Indigenous Education and Western Education
Formal education was introduced into Nigeria in the 16th century, before its introduction, indigenous education was being practised. This was non-formal and non-certified in terms of competencies, a took place at various stages of a child’s life, knowledge was presumed to be static and the pedagogic techniques used were basically memorization and the strict imitation of adults behaviour, questioning the logic, meaning or analyses of knowledge was discouraged as children were to be seen but not heard Lesourd (1996). In spite of the shortcomings of the pre-literate African societies had holistic training and education for all members of the communities. The education is lifelong which satisfied the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of the individuals. However, Western colonial education which was introduced in Nigeria had ideas and practises similar to British colonial education. The aim of British colonial education was to train clerks for administration and for commercial activities. Christian missionaries later established schools which were tailored towards the British structure, curriculum and organisation. British colonial education therefore inculcated into Nigerians foreign ideologies, culture and values. In the same vein, learning was tailored towards teaching and mastery of specific subject and one’s level of ability was determined by the capacity to memorize and reproduced facts from these subjects. According to Blege (1996) colonial educationists believe that schools and colleges must help their pupils solve only mental problems while educational functionalists believe that school is an integral, functioning part of the society, vital to its continuation and survival and therefore academic knowledge is useful only if it can be applied to solve societal problems or otherwise it becomes detrimental to the society. Whitty (1991) stated that British colonial education laid no explicit emphasis on social and political education. No wonder in Nigeria vocational and practical training were regarded as suitable only for people of low academic ability and most parents strongly objected to their children going into apprenticeship or vocational schools instead of academic institutions because of the colonial mentality that linked status to academic qualifications. For education is supposed to transform a society from pre-literate to contemporary nationhood, however, the sort of transformation that took place in Nigeria could not help the country revolutionalize and modernise the economy to meet the demands of the growing society because the education system did not emphasise the teaching of life employed nor self-employed as they lack skills for any profession. Historical hostilities and rivalries among many of the peoples agglomerated within Nigeria accounted for some of the conflicted sense of common national identity.
COMPARASON OF NIGERIA, GHANA, FINLAND AND NORWAY EDUCATIONAL POLICIES
NIGERIA EDUCATIONAL POLICY
Education in Nigeria is overseen by the Ministry of Education. Local authorities take responsibility for implementing state-controlled policy regarding public education and state schools. The education system is divided into Kindergarten, Primary education, Secondary education and Tertiary education. Nigeria’s central government has been dominated by instability since declaring independence from Britain, and, as a result, a unified set of education policies has not yet been successfully implemented. Regional differences in quality, curriculum, and funding characterize the education system in Nigeria. Currently, Nigeria possesses the largest population of out-of-school learning youth in the world.
Primary education
Primary education begins at around age 5 for the majority of Nigerians. Students spend six years in primary school and graduate with a school-leaving certificate. Subjects taught at the primary level include mathematics, English language, Christian Religious Knowledge, Islamic knowledge studies, agricultural science, home economics and one of the three main indigenous languages and cultures: Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo. Private schools also offer computer science, French, and Fine Arts. Primary school students are required to take a Common Entrance Examination to qualify for admission into the Federal and State Government Secondary schools, as well as private ones.
Before 1976, education policy was still largely shaped by the colonial policy of the British Colonial Period. In 1976, the Universal Primary Education program was established. This program faced many difficulties and was subsequently revised in 1981 and 1990. The Universal Basic Education, UBE, came as a replacement of the Universal Primary Education and intended to enhance the success of the first nine years of schooling The UBE involves 6 years of Primary School education and 3 years of Junior Secondary School education, culminating in 9 years of uninterrupted schooling, and transition from one class to another is automatic but determined through continuous assessment. This scheme is monitored by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, and has made it “free”, “compulsory” and a right of every child. Therefore, the UBEC law section 15 defines UBE as early childhood care and education. The law stipulates a 9-year formal schooling, adult literacy and non-formal education, skill acquisition programs, and the education of special groups such as nomads and migrants, girl child and women, Al-majiri, street children and disabled people (Aderinoye, 2007)
Secondary education
Students spend six years in Secondary School, that is 3 years of JSS (Junior Secondary School), and 3 years of SSS (Senior Secondary School). By Senior Secondary School Class 2 (SS2), students are taking the GCE O’Levels exam, which is not mandatory, but some students take it to prepare for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination. The Senior Secondary School ends on the WASSCE. Junior Secondary School is free and compulsory. It leads to the BECE, which opens the gate to Senior Secondary School. SSS curriculum is based on 4 core subjects completed by 4 or 5 elective subjects. Core subjects are: English; mathematics; Economics; Civic Education; one or more electives out of biology, chemistry, physics or integrated science; one or more electives out of English literature, history, geography or social studies; agricultural science or a vocational subject which includes: Commerce, food and nutrition, technical drawing or fine arts.
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
Although it has been observed that some of the objectives of the new curriculum have been met Obemeata (1995), Abe (1997), Salami (1997), the new curriculum has gone a long way to empower students in all spheres of life and most of all in technological advancement. Technology being the bedrock of industrialization is a product of man, which could only be obtained through the introduction of vocational and technical education. Vocational/technical education according to Osuala (1995), Oni (1995) is that education that prepares the individuals for employment in any industry through specialized education for which there is societal need and which can most appropriately be acquired in school. Vocational and technological education is particularly relevant to the needs of industrialization in Nigeria and therefore the integrated system of education if properly implemented will empower the society into making a rapid technological advancement
REFERENCES
- Abe, C. V. (1999): Patterns of career awareness and vocational maturity of Patterns. JSS Students. Journal of Functional education 1 (1) 56 – 64.
- Alade, I. A. (2004): Improving the status of vocational technical education: a route to National development. Journal of Teachers‟ mandate on education and social development in Nigeria. Stirling-Houston publishers (Nig.) Ltd.
- Bishop, G. (1995): curriculum Development, A textbook for students. Macmillan Publisher Ltd, London
- Blege, W. (1996): Teaching for development. Sedco Publishing Ltd., Accra, Ghana
- Dada, A. Kolawole; C. O. O. and Arikpo, A. (2003): Making Nigeria Education Curricular more relevant Ibadan, Education this millennium innovations in theory and practice. Ed. By Ayodele-Bamisaiye O. Nwazuke, L.A. and Okediran A. Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Limited pp 40 – 50
- Fafunwa. A. B. (1974): History of education in Nigeria. London; George Allen & Unwim Ltd.
- Fafunwa A. B. (1991): A keynote address by the Honourable Minister of education at the National conference on National School Curriculum Review, implementation committee on National Policy on Education. 2nd – 6 th Sept.
- Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004): National Policy on Education (revised), Lagos NERC Press
- Feinberg, Walter and Soltis, Jonas F. (1985): School and society, Teachers College press
- Lesourd, J. S. (1996): Socio-cultural influences on learning. The social studies vol. 77 No 3
