CHAPTER ONE

1.1 BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE POINT OF INQUIRY

The ability to see beyond the limits of assumptions makes the failure of planning very rare. The societal growth and development is dependent on the strength of the planning and the level of the implementation. This is because the ability to plan creditably is not the ability to carry the plan to the fullest.

Nigerian secondary education, like its count part in the whole world, is the bedrock or educational growth and development. People are molded and given the strength to make further achievements in the educational field through their secondary education. This entails that once the foundation is strong, the base for the growth and development of the other areas of life would be assured. Thus, the planning of the Nigeria serious place in the scheme of events. This would be of a great importance to the realization of the country’s goals and aspirations.

When the secondary education is able to make its needed impact, the crisis that could rise in the subsequent areas would be avoided. Suffice this, is to say that the basically ingredients for the emergence of authentic secondary education in Nigeria was not given a serious thought by the departed foreign powers. Even in the planning of the pattern for the implementation approach that does not encourage the thinking among the people. And it is observable that thinking is the stepping stone towards the socio-political and economic development of the people.

The views of Eze showed development gives room for self esteem, freedom and creative initiative of the persons and the country in general. The pressing question becomes what would be the pre-requisite to the realization of this noble trend in the life of Nigeria. Our secondary school is charge with the duty of initiating the child into the basic life racy and innumeracy. It is equally to guide learner in the art of reflective thinking and scientific inquiry. But the realization of this noble role is far from the real.

The study is search for the basic ingredients to the realization of a functional secondary school system that would engender scientific inquiry and the thinking ability in the lives of Nigerians. It is very much assured that the introduction of the critical thinking, creative thinking, caring thinking, systems thinking, synergic thinking, Ecumenical thinking, mathematical thinking and other forms of thinking that make up our higher order thinking that the Nigerian problems of academic en-slavery and moral decadence would be solved.