INDIGENOUS, ISLAMIC AND WESTERN EDUCATION IN NIGERIA...
INTRODUCTION....
Three main educational traditions, the
Indigenous, Islamic and the Western, are
known to have flourished at various times in
Nigeria. Each type of education served its
purpose for its consumers but also had its
problems.
Even in these days of western-type education,
and at this dawn of the new millennium, our
educational system is still beset with numerous
problems in spite of the progress so far made.
This paper examines the trend in the
educational development of Nigeria from pre-
colonial times to the present, with a view to
highlighting the progress made and problems
encountered on the way.
More specifically, we present an overview of
the indigenous, Quranic and the western-type
education before and after independence. We
also examine some problems in Nigerian
education, especially access, discipline and
funding and indi cate desirable direction for
the future.
NATURE OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION
Indigenous education represents the type of
education offered in the pre-literate era,
within the community, by community members
who possessed specialised skills or abilities in
various fields of human endeavour. In most
communities, prior to the introduction of
formal education, boys were brought up to
take to whatever occupation their fathers
engaged in. In some other cases, the boys were
sent to other masters as apprentices to learn
various vocations and life etiquette.
Although occupations varied accord ing to the
geographical areas in Nigeria, the major ones
were farming, trading, craft work, fishing, cat
tle rearing, wine tapping, traditional medicine
and black-smithing. The boys also engaged in
such other training activities as archery, tree
climbing and wrestling. Intellectual training for
them consisted of their sitting quietly beside
their fathers at meetings and listening
attentively to learn the process of such tasks
and skills as arbitration of cases, oratory, wise
sayings and use of proverbs.
All these stimulated their sense of rationality.
Girls were often expected to stay back at home
to learn domestic and other chores such as
cook ing, sweeping, weeding the farmlands,
hair weav ing, decorations of the body, dye
production; and the like from their mothers.
As in the case of the boys, the girls did almost
exactly what their mothers trained them to do.
Generally, therefore, in spite of geo-political
variations, traditional or indigenous education
in most parts of Nigeria trained individu als to
fit usefully into their society by learning and
practising economic skills for self-sustenance;
adapting to their role expectations and
contributing to the development of their
society.
Although the traditional education offered by
the community was comprehensive such that it
provided training in physical, character,
intellectual, social and voca tional
development, it however had its limitations.
For one thing, in the absence of writing,
people depended on the power of their
memories to facilitate the retention and
transmission of all learned ideas to future
generations. But memory could fail, and in the
event of the death of a custodian of some
useful information or skill, all was lost. There
were, however, little or no cases of
unemployment.
ISLAMIC EDUCATION:
Records show that Islam was first accepted by
a Kanern ruler, Umme Jilmi (1085 - 1097).
Subsequent rulers, Dunama 1 (1097-1150) and
Dunama II (1221 - 59), continued the tradition
of Islamic learning such that by the end of the
13th Century, Kanern had become a centre of
Islamic learning (Fafunwa, 1974:53).
In the early 14th Century, Islam was brought
into Hausa land by traders and scholars who
came from Wangarawa to Kano in the reign of
Ali Yaji (1349 1385). Before long, most of what
later became the Northern Nigeria was
islamised. Islamic education brought along
with it Arabic learning since Arabic is the
language of the Quran and was therefore
perceived as having great spiritual value.
Arabic and Islam were taught simulta neously
in primary schools. As a result of the polit ical
and social influence which Islam and Quranic
learning conferred on those who possessed it,
many rulers employed Islamic scholars as
administrators.
The Jihad by Uthman Dan Fodio helped to
revive, spread and consolidate Islamic studies
and extend access to education also to women.
Thus, before the arrival in Nigeria of the
Western type education in the 19th Century,
Islamic learning had been established. Islamic
studies had also pene trated the Western parts
of Nigeria before the arrival of the Jihadists;
but the Jihad strengthened the religion where
it was weak. Support for Islamic education
came from some Northern Nigerian lead ers,
especially Abdullahi Bayero, (Emir of Kano),
who, on his return from Mecca in 1934,
introduced new ideas by building a Law School
for training teachers of Islamic subjects and
Arabic as well as English and Arithmetic.
The school continued to grow and expand in
scope such that before long, and with the
support of the then Northern Region Ministry
of Education, it had grown into the popular
Bayero College, Kano, which became a part of
Ahmadu Bello University and later the present
Bayero University, Kano. The institution helped
to expand the scope of Islamic studies in
Nigeria. Many institutions have sprung up over
the years, in many parts of the country, for
the purpose of teaching Islamic ideas and
practices. However, one major problem of this
educational tradition is the focus on Arabic
which, in many parts of Nigeria, is not the
language of literature, instruction and cor
respondence.
WESTERN EDUCATION...
The Western-Type Education. This educa tional
tradition, began seriously in Nigeria with the
arrival of the Wesleyan Christian Missionaries
at Badagry in 1842. It has obviously been the
most successful in meeting the overall formal
education al needs of the consumers for the
present and the future. Between 1842and
1914, abouttendifferent Christian missions had
arrived and begun intensive missionary and
educational work in Nigeria. Schools were built
and the missions struggled for pupils/members
such that there was a proliferation of primary
schools established by different mis sions.
Although literary educationin in the 4Rs
(reading, writing, arithmetic and religion) was
predominant, this new missionary education
prepared the recipients for new job
opportunities, as teachers, church evangelists
or pastors, clerks and inter preters. Emphasis
was also on character training. Most of the
missions established primary schools and,
initially, little emphasis was laid on secondary
and higher education.
But following agitations by influential church
members, rich merchants and emigrants living
in Lagos, the CMS Grammar School Lagos, for
example, was established in 1857.
The .western-type education developed faster
in the South than in the North of Nigeria
because of the scepticism of the Muslims
about the impact of Christian missionary
education. By 1914, it was estimated that
about 25,000 Quranic schools were already in
existence all over Northern Nigeria. Thus, the
arrival of Christian Western education met stiff
opposition. However, in some parts of
Northern Nigeria, the Christian missionaries
did succeed to establish schools, at times, in
collabora tion with Government.
Much of the educational work in Southern
Nigerian, prior to 1882, was done by the
missionar ies almost without government
assistance. However, from 1882, the
Government began a bold intervention by
promulgating codes and regulations, guidelines
and policies on organisation and man agement
of schools. Government also began to appoint
inspectors and to make grants to schools to
ensure quality. Thus, between 1882 and 1950,
many codes and regulations were issued by
Government to regulate the quality of
education in various parts of the country.
Between 1952 and 1960, each of the then
three regions enacted and operated new
education laws (the West in 1955, both the
East and North in 1956). The initial exper
iment at Universal Primary Education
Programme was started in the West and East in
1955 and 1957 respectively.
The West African Examination Council, (WAEC)
was set up in 1952 as a corporate body
charged with the responsibility of conducting
examinations in the public interest in West
Africa. Such examination were to qualify
candidates for certificates which were
equivalent to those from similar examining
authorities in the United Kingdom (Adeyogbe,
1992).
Furthermore, in 1959, the Federal Government
set up the Sir Eric Ashby Commission to
identify the high-level manpower needs of the
country for the future. The Ashby Report
prescribed that education was indeed the tool
for achieving national econom ic expansion
and the social emancipation of the individual
(Aliu, 1997).
It recommended the establishment of four
Federal Universities in the country, and
presented some vital courses for them. Five
universities, instead of four, were subsequently
opened as follows: University of Nigeria,
Nsukka (1960), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
(1962), University of lfe, lle-ife (1962),
University of Lagos, Lagos (1962), and
University of lbadan, first established as
University College, lbadan in 1948. University
of Benin was later established (1972). As of
1999, Nigeria had forty-one universities made
up of twenty-five Federal, twelve State and
four Private-owned. Among them are
specialised universities, including three
Universities of Agriculture, seven Universities
of Technology, as well as a military university,
the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
These have been established in the bid to
address specific areas of national needs. Other
ter tiary educational institutions such as
Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and
Colleges of Techno logy were also set up
during the years. The National Universities
Commission (NUC), established in 1962, has
the task of co-ordinating the orderly
development of the Nigerian university system
and maintaining its academic standards. In
1977, the Joint Admission and Matriculations
Board (JAMB) was created to regulate the
admission of students into the universities,
taking cognisance of available spaces and
federal character. Student enrolment in
universities has risen froin a mere 1,395 in
1960 to over 250,000 by 1998/9 session.
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