CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nigeria is at the cross roads of her developmental stage and therefore needs a decisive action to liberate her from the danger of total collapse in the face of political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental, ecological, and religious and communication problems. It has been repeatedly said that no nation can rise above her education and Nigeria is not an exception. The method of education adopted by any country speaks volumes as to how far the country would go in solving her domestic or internal problems and her relationship with other people especially her external neighbors.

Each country has problems and needs that are peculiar to her and her environment and as such need to construct her education philosophy with regards to her needs. Education in Nigeria is an instrument par excellence for effecting national development (N.P.E. 2004:4).

It has witnessed active participation by individuals, communities, non-governmental agencies as well as government intervention. It is therefore desirable for the nation to spell out in clear and unequivocal terms the philosophy and objectives that underlines its investment in education. The Federal Government of Nigeria. has stated that for the benefit of all citizens the country’s educational goals shall be clearly set out in terms of their relevance to the needs of the individuals and those of the society in consonance with the realities of our environment and modern world (ibid).

Unfortunately, Nigeria’s education system is still in the woods courtesy of strict adherence to the conventional pedagogical method of education which she received from her erstwhile British colonial master which does not consider the implications of such education philosophy to Nigeria’s political, socio-cultural, economic, environmental and ecological needs.

The pedagogical method of education is devoid of reasonableness ab initio because the British came to Nigeria and other African colonial dependence not to develop them but to saturate their economic and political ambitions and so their educational objectives are based on how to maximize their profit and expand their territorial ambition. They introduced to the colonies the type of education that ensured their continuous domination of those colonies which emphasizes basically the “3Rs” – Reading;’ writing and (A) rithmetic through which they produced those who could read their letters or directives (Anih,s ; Igwe, S. and Igwe, C. 2004: 110). This method of education is devoid of the 41h. Reasonableness which is the missing link in our education system.

Since the system does not teach reasonableness, it does not possess the capacity to empower the citizens towards self – actualization, selffulfillment and self – emancipation. The system was only able to produce local teachers, catechists, interpreters, clerks and other minor workers, who have no capability to play any leadership role in economic cum socio-political arena of their countries. The colonial masters tended to cling to these leadership roles perpetually while keeping the citizens of the colonies in perpetual bondage of servitude. It then became true that no education philosophy could appropriately address the problems of a country than the one made for her by her own citizens because it is one who wears the shoe that knows where it pinches him. It is pertinent at this juncture to state that we know our problems better and should solve them better with our own indigenou’s, resources.

The educational objectives of Nigeria in the 21st century differ completely from that of Britain of the 18th century. There is a big gulf of difference in the spatio-temporal perspectives of the two countries and so educational philosophy planned by the British and for the British interests in the 18th century can not be used to solve Nigeria’s problems in the 21st century.

The major alms of the British venture into Nigeria were for politico-economic interests to ensure steady supply of raw materials to their industries back home and not to train the indigenous people of Nigeria. They worked for gain and not for grace.

Thus, it can be said free of any equivocation that the system of education which the British people bequeathed to Nigeria was completely pedagogical in practice, dehumanizing and depersonalizing in intent and slavish in execution. Any education system based on pedagogy emphasizes competition instead of cooperation, me ism instead of we hood, egoism and monocracy instead of democracy.

The education policy formulated by the pedagogists always paid lips service to the teaching of reflective, critical and creative thinking even as enshrined in the national policy on education 1981 (revised 1998 and 2004) respectively.

When we examine the in-put and out-put of the nation’s education system, we shall see how far we have performed woefully below expectations ‘because of misapplication of priorities which is associated with the pedagogical stance of education. The Nigerian education system has failed to achieve the broad goals of education as mapped out in the national education policy.

It is common knowledge that most of our secondary school leavers do not possess the ability and skills to reason well, they do not respect the dignity of labour, all they live and hope for IS to pass their final examinations through cheat and “expo 419”. They like the school administrators target only the end result. They are not interested in the means by which they achieve those results. The values and norms of honest living have eluded those children from the beginning and so, how would they be expected to live honest lives after they had been schooled and graduated in dishonesty. That is why in our political lives, we exhibit bitterness, rancor and turgery. The school curriculum is prepared and delivered in such a way that the children are not invited to think. They are expected to reproduce exactly what the teachers had given them thereby encouraging laziness among the pupils/ students hence there is acute lack of creativity.

The pedagogical method of education has dealt a great havoc to our education system. As. a result we have the problems of cultism in the secondary ‘Schools and tertiary institutions to contend with. The students vandalize school properties, kill and main their fellow students and teachers; they are threat to themselves and the society in which they live and above all they have been performing woefully in their academic out-put generally.

Anih, S. (2004: 109) states that negligence of reason results in the loss of everything. He emphasized the need for redesigning of Nigeria’s education philosophy. We need an authentic philosophy of education to solve national problems in Nigeria.