Introduction

Education is the most integral part of Civilization in any society or country.

The act of teaching and learning is a lifetime process that cannot be easily compared
to other activities in the world. It has existed since the creation of man and has
evolved over time according to the times and the continuous development of human
affairs.

Educational system in Nigeria has passed through two significant stages, the
colonial and post independence eras. Prior to the British conquest of the area and the
subsequent establishment of Colonial Government, most of the area to the northern
and western parts comprised empires, kingdoms and some chiefdoms, while in the
central parts and south eastern parts there were small chiefdoms with some semi-
autonomous communities. In the northern parts, Islam was deeply entrenched both in
the religious belief and educational orientation of the people who had a uniform
Qur’anic education policy (Ozigiand Ocho, 1981). In the southern parts, each ethnic
group had its own traditional form of education based on its own culture and tradition,
whose aims and objectives were similar. The curricula which is informal comprises
developing the child’s physical skill, character, intellectual skills and sense of
belonging to the community as well as inculcating respect for elders, and giving
specific vocational training and the understanding and appreciation of the
community’s cultural heritage (Fafunwa, 2004). This was the scenario in 1842, when
the Christian missionaries arrived on the coastal area of the southern part of Nigeria
and introduced western education. The aims of education as given by the missionaries
were to enable recipients to learn to read the bible in English and the local language,
gardening and agriculture as well as train local school masters, catechists and
clergymen.

Colonialism and Post-colonialism is the conceptual framework which makes

visible the legacy of British colonial educational policy, the close alignment of
Nigeria’s educational policy’s philosophy of ‘the right of all individual. Coloniality is
characterized by the Western projects of globalization, modernity, entrenched
epistemological hegemony and subtle manipulation and perennial domination of
postcolonial decolonized economy and government.

It is important to know how education was before the arrival of the westerners, the
progress of education, the challenges associated with education and general appraisal
of the educational system in Nigeria from that period to date.

PRE-COLONIAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN NIGERIA

Pre – colonial education represents the type of education offered in the

preliterate era, within the community by community members who possessed
specialized skills or abilities in various fields of human endeavor. In most
communities in Nigeria, prior to the introduction of formal education boys were
brought up to take to whatever occupation their fathers engaged in, in some cases,
they were sent to other masters as apprentices to learn various vocations. Mkpa,
(2012) noted that the traditional education offered by the community was
comprehensive such that it provided training in physical, character intellectual, social
and vocational development. Joseph (2007) observed that Nigerian pre-colonial
education was progressive because of its emphasis on functionalism, and its relevance
to Nigerians.

Long before the arrival of the British Government into the African soil, Nigeria (as it
was later called) had two major types of education:

Islamic Education 

This type of education was only afforded to members of the Islamic religion
across all Muslim communities. The scope of education was limited to teaching
students about the Qur’an and the Arabic alphabet.

This form of training was an extension of the teachings in the Mosque specifically for
young muslim children who would have a more basic education regarding their
religion.
Indigenous Education

 Students were exposed to the realities of society and trained how to apply
practical skills in adding significantly to the progress of their society. In addition, they
learned more about the customs and traditions of the community as well as engaged in
community activities such as sanitation and farming.

This was the traditional training at the pre-colonial era which is still in practice today.
The involvement of the students in basic and specialized trainings was dependent on
the age of the students and their genders. During this time line, there was no formal
education in terms of reading and writing neither on arts or science.

Colonial Education System in Nigeria

Around the 1840s, Western education was introduced into Nigeria by Christian

British missionaries. The first missionary school was established by the Anglican
Church Missionary in 1842. In the process of time, the colonial government rendered
financial assistance to the missionaries and began establishing primary and secondary
schools.

This was achieved through an Ordinance promulgated in 1882 declaring the

establishment of formal education in Nigeria. This was a significant progress and the
beginning of the gradual development of the Nation. By the year 1914, 11 secondary
schools, 91 missionary schools and 59 Government elementary schools (inclusive of
private schools) were already established.

However, there was need for advanced learning in various fields of study to be made
for the students. In order to be in par with the global trends (which is proportional to
the holistic development of a country), the need to establish an institution for
advanced studies was of paramount consideration. This was the ideology that
pionerred the creation of universities. So in 1948, the first Nigerian University,
University of Ibadan, was established which can be traced to the Eliot Commission in
1943.
THE LINK BETWEEN NIGERIA SYSTEM OF EDUCATION DURING AND
COLONIAL ERA AND AFTER COLONIAZION

There have been contentions as to the motives behind introduction of Western

type of education by the missionaries and the enactment of educational policies in
Nigeria by the colonialists. Pertinent is the type of early education introduced by the
missionaries and its relevance or otherwise to Nigerian peculiar situation more so that
education during this early period was regarded as an essential part of the
Missionaries' "civilising" mission and a way of winning converts, training African
catechists as well as creating African middle class. Formal education was used by the
missionaries as bait for wooing younger generations to Christianity especially as the
African rulers only patronized Christianity for selfish reasons and self-
aggrandizement.

Since colonization, Nigeria educational policies have been one of the

fundamental changes of Nigeria's educational system. The formulation of these
policies has been grouped under three epochs namely the pre-amalgamation era
(1848-1908), post-amalgamation to independence (1904-1960) and post-independence
era(1961-2013) (Kallo, 2018). In all, a total of 23 ordinances were enacted in the
period under review. Three were enacted in the Pre-amalgamation era, ten in the post-
amalgamation to independence era and ten from the independence era to 2013 (Kallo,
2018).The learning of the use of words and gestures to deliver messages in the most
eloquent manner was encouraged and praised by both the traditional leadership and
village elders. As stated by Emeagwali (2006) Africans in diverse sections of the
continent employed a vast variety of symbols and patterns for communicating
thoughts. The African continent underwent its own sort of teaching and learning
before it was colonized and even before the advent of the missionaries.

The training systems of Africans such as the traditional schools did exist, but
most significantly, the family unit functioned as a vital framework for knowledge
supply and acquisition. It is clear that the learning that was introduced into African
communities became organized in such a way that people could not completely
identify with the continent's ideals.

Pre-Colonial and post-colonial education fostered and encouraged

individualism, saw money acquisition as a measure of life success, conditioned those
who got it to resent those who did not, taught receivers to dislike physical labor, and
taught victims to embrace everything European as the ideal of greatness. Boateng
(2015) also asserts that education's traditional function of bridging the divide between
adults and young are progressively losing way to the formation of the so-called
creative person who is divorced from his or her heritage. Western education actively
opposed Africans' attempts to influence it and to recognize their contributions.

Conclusion

The colonial education in Nigeria was essentialist in nature and they succeeded
in changing the progressive education they found in Nigeria. Since 1944, during the
colonial era, governments in Nigeria have expressed a commitment to education, in
the belief that overcoming illiteracy and ignorance will form a basis for accelerated
national development as evidenced by British Colonial participation in educational
provision, the UPE of the western and eastern region in the 1950s, the 1976 national
UPE and the current UBE programmes. Education is very crucial to the development
of citizens. Nigeria, however, has problems such as inequalities in access to education,
an educational gap between the north and south, dwindling financial resources, and
inadequate infrastructures.
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