Topics in History and Policy of Education in Nigeria

This book is a collection of some key topics on the history and policy of education in Nigeria. It deals with the trends and issues in some of the most critical eras in the history of modern Nigerian education. The eleven-chapter book, written in simple but elegant prose, begins with a treatise on the notion and practice of education in Nigeria, and indeed Africa, before the encounter of the continent with Europe. It then examines the activities of the early Christian missions in the field of Western education, and the gradual intervention of the British Colonial Government in matters of education through educational codes and ordinances. Thereafter, it takes a critical look at the role of the commissions in the growth and development of education, and the emergence of the secondary grammar school and higher education in Nigeria during the colonial, pre and post-independence eras. The final chapters trace the evolution of the National Policy on Education, analyse the contents of the different editions between 1977 and 2013, the emergence of the 6-3-3-4 and later the 9-3-4 systems of education, and the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme in Nigeria.