FORMAL EDUCATION/WESTERN

Formal education in Nigeria is traceable to the
efforts of European Missionaries around 1842.
Education at this time was regarded as of funda
mental importance to the spread of
Christianity (Esu 1997). Thus, education
introduced at this early stages was interwoven
with Christian evan gelism. The missionaries
established and ran the early schools in
Nigeria. They also designed the curriculum for
such schools and devoted their mea gre
resources to the opening of schools for young
Nigerians
All missionaries who came to Nigeria combined
evangelical and educational work together.
Consequently, early mission schools were
founded by the Methodist Church of Scotland
Mission , the Church Missionary Society (CMS)
and the Roman Catholics.
By 1882, the CMS. had seventeen elemen tary
and infant day schools for boys and girls in var
1 ious parts of Lagos. Nine of these schools
were under the direction of the Lagos Church
of England School Board while others were
managed by the local board of the Church
Missionary Society.
However, the spread of western education in
the north was not as smooth as it was in the
south. This was because the north had enjoyed
the Islamic system of education for many years
before intro » duction of western education.
However, efforts were made by different
missions to open primary schools in the north.
The subjects taught in
majority of the elementary schools includ i ed:
Scripture, English Compositions, English
Grammar, Arithmetic, Geography, Music,
Singing, Reading, Writing, Dictation, and for
girls Sewing (Fafunwa 1974). The emphasis in
the infant class f es was on the teaching of the
3 Rs (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic). The
growth of schools was, however, limited by
lack of funds and sometimes parents'
unwillingness to send their children especially
girls to school.