The European Early Missionaries Vs. Nigerian Government on Western Education in Nigeria
Basically prior to the coming of the Europeans or more aptly introduction of Western education in Nigeria there were basically two distinct education systems in Nigeria namely the Indigenous system and Quoranic type. Formal or Western education was brought to Nigeria perhaps in 1843, a system which added to the already existing two bring the systems to three. Indigenous system entailed becoming apprenticed in crafts and services in leather works, painting, medicine etc passed down in families. Skills are acquired in this way and utilized. Quoranic system had to do with Islamic education in which a child learns the whole lot of the chapters of the quoran usually by rote and said his prayers regularly as required.
Western education in Nigeria as introduced by the Europeans mainly was all about the spread of Christianity and was thought useful and important to evangelism which appeared to reign supreme in the hearts of these Europeans other than the much desired education by Nigerians. Perhaps the Europeans were of the opinion that the combination of education and evangelism was a necessity in achieving their aims.
The spread of western education was successful in the southern part of the country were curiosity to learn was considered very high. In the forefront of the introduction of this western styled education were Methodist Church of Scotland Mission, the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the Roman Catholic. These missionary worked so hard to spread western education particularly in the south. In the north the difficulty of efficiently planting western education was considered not very smooth because the region had already deeply rooted in Islamic education and a host of other reasons, still the missionaries continued to put in their efforts. It should be noted that Islamic education was delivered under the tutelage of Malams and scholars.
Some people have argued that the system of education as handed down by the Europeans was ultimately aimed at merely producing Nigerians who could only read and write and no more. They further argue that the subjects taught in majority of the elementary schools such as Scripture, English Compositions, English Grammar, Arithmetic, Geography, Music, Singing, Reading, writing, Dictation, and sewing (Fafunwa, 1974) Prof. Babs Fafunwa may not share this idea though.
It held that the combinations of subjects like these will produce nothing of teachers, Court clerks, Interpreters etc. These may not be a misleading idea anyway but I wish to state that there were other militating factors on the part of Nigerians such as unwillingness to send their especially girls to school. This is still exhibited in some parts of Nigeria today.
There is no doubt however that one needs to commend these early European missionaries who left their countries and tirelessly established these schools even though certain drawbacks may have undermined these gestures in so many ways.
On the 25 January 1976 the Federal Government of Nigeria acting on the idea or advice of Alhaji Yakubu Adamu the Executive Chairman, kano State Primary Education Board changed from the former 7-5-3 system of education to 6-3-3-4 systm. In 1982, the same Nigerian Governent established the Junior Secondary School (JSS) and senior secondary School (SSS) dividing the system into two i.e. junior and secondary the same Nigerian government argued was aimed at awarding certificates after the first three years of junior school and second years of senior schools. It is however very clear that the Federal Republic of Nigeria erred when it suddenly jumped into the system.
Till Today I am yet to see any junior secondary school “graduate” awarded with a certificate in search of job or further educational pursuit. This system will hurriedly replace the West African GCE ‘O’ Level in 1989 is nothing but effort to produce nothing. It is no news that our standard of education has fallen completely to the ground with the Nigerian government fast neglecting the education sector. Public schools are rotting away and now declared a no go area in the minds of the people and by the people.When Nigerian graduates are not employable (Prof. Charles Soludo) How is the system introduced by the Nigerian Government comparable to that operated by the early European Missionaries?
Nigerians are now getting accustomed to the establishment of private universities too expensive for the children of the common masses who require education. Church owners in Nigeria have joined the race too. It is now the race to establish, control and spin money using universities. Many of these universities are no go areas for the poor masses. So the question again is who are these universities established for? When Nigerians see these universities and run to Ghana we start asking ourselves what is wrong with these big expensive universities.
The Nigerian Government needs to do something about it fast before it gets too late because when education becomes out of bounds for its citizens, the citizens will choose nothing but ignorance. Early European missionaries did better and deserve our praise.