History Of Education In Nigeria Book 'LINK'
Originally published in 1974, a comprehensive history of Nigerian Education, from early times right through to the time of publication, had long been needed by all concerned with Education in Nigeria, students, teachers and educational administrators. No one was better qualified than Professor Fafunwa to provide such a book, and in doing so he gave due emphasis to the beginnings of Education in its three main stages of indigenous, Muslim and Christian Education.
History Of Education In Nigeria Book
A knowledge of the history and development of the Nigerian Education system, of the numerous and intensely varied personalities and beliefs which have combined and often conflicted to shape it, is indispensable to all students in colleges and universities studying to become teachers. It is this knowledge that Professor Fafunwa set out to provide, drawing on his wide experience as teacher writer and educationalist.
Originally published in 1974, a comprehensive history of Nigerian Education, from early times right through to the time of publication, had long been needed by all concerned with Education in Nigeria, students, teachers and educational administrators. No one was better qualified than Professor Fafunwa to provide such a book, and in doing so he gave due emphasis to the beginnings of Education in its three main stages of indigenous, Muslim and Christian Education.
A knowledge of the history and development of the Nigerian Education system, of the numerous and intensely varied personalities and beliefs which have combined and often conflicted to shape it, is indispensable to all students in colleges and universities studying to become teachers. It is this knowledge that Professor Fafunwa set out to provide, drawing on his wide experience as teacher writer and educationalist.
In the Islamic civilization that spread all the way between China and Spain during the time between the 7th and 19th centuries, Muslims started schooling from 622 in Medina, which is now a city in Saudi Arabia, schooling at first was in the mosques (masjid in Arabic) but then schools became separate in schools next to mosques. The first separate school was the Nizamiyah school. It was built in 1066 in Baghdad. Children started school from the age of six with free tuition. The Quran encourages Muslims to be educated. Thus, education and schooling sprang up in the ancient Muslim societies. Moreover, Muslims had one of the first universities in history which is Al-Qarawiyin University in Fez, Morocco. It was originally a mosque that was built in 859.[21]
In the city-states of ancient Greece, most education was private, except in Sparta. For example, in Athens, during the 5th and 4th century BC, aside from two years military training, the state played little part in schooling.[35][36] Anyone could open a school and decide the curriculum. Parents could choose a school offering the subjects they wanted their children to learn, at a monthly fee they could afford.[35] Most parents, even the poor, sent their sons to schools for at least a few years, and if they could afford it from around the age of seven until fourteen, learning gymnastics (including athletics, sport and wrestling), music (including poetry, drama and history) and literacy.[35][36] Girls rarely received formal education. At writing school, the youngest students learned the alphabet by song, then later by copying the shapes of letters with a stylus on a waxed wooden tablet. After some schooling, the sons of poor or middle-class families often learnt a trade by apprenticeship, whether with their father or another tradesman.[35] By around 350 BC, it was common for children at schools in Athens to also study various arts such as drawing, painting, and sculpture. The richest students continued their education by studying with sophists, from whom they could learn subjects such as rhetoric, mathematics, geography, natural history, politics, and logic.[35][36] Some of Athens' greatest schools of higher education included the Lyceum (the so-called Peripatetic school founded by Aristotle of Stageira) and the Platonic Academy (founded by Plato of Athens). The education system of the wealthy ancient Greeks is also called Paideia. In the subsequent Roman empire, Greek was the primary language of science. Advanced scientific research and teaching was mainly carried on in the Hellenistic side of the Roman empire, in Greek.
From around the 13th century until the latter part of the 19th century, the Three Character Classic, which is an embodiment of Confucian thought suitable for teaching to young children, served as a child's first formal education at home. The text is written in triplets of characters for easy memorization. With illiteracy common for most people at the time, the oral tradition of reciting the classic ensured its popularity and survival through the centuries. With the short and simple text arranged in three-character verses, children learned many common characters, grammar structures, elements of Chinese history and the basis of Confucian morality.
The history of education in Japan dates back at least to the 6th century, when Chinese learning was introduced at the Yamato court. Foreign civilizations have often provided new ideas for the development of Japan's own culture.
The Amautas constituted a special class of wise men similar to the bards of Great Britain. They included illustrious philosophers, poets, and priests who kept the oral histories of the Incas alive by imparting the knowledge of their culture, history, customs and traditions throughout the kingdom. Considered the most highly educated and respected men in the Empire, the Amautas were largely entrusted with educating those of royal blood, as well as other young members of conquered cultures specially chosen to administer the regions. Thus, education throughout the territories of the Incas was socially discriminatory, most people not receiving the formal education that royalty received.
In 1818, John Pounds set up a school and began teaching poor children reading, writing, and mathematics without charging fees. In 1820, Samuel Wilderspin opened the first infant school in Spitalfield. Starting in 1833, Parliament voted money to support poor children's school fees in England and Wales.[95] In 1837, the Whig Lord Chancellor Henry Brougham led the way in preparing for public education. Most schooling was handled in church schools, and religious controversies between the Church of England and the dissenters became a central theme and educational history before 1900.[96]
After 1870 school textbooks based on Confucianism were replaced by westernized texts. However, by the 1890s, a reaction set in and a more authoritarian approach was imposed. Traditional Confucian and Shinto precepts were again stressed, especially those concerning the hierarchical nature of human relations, service to the new state, the pursuit of learning, and morality. These ideals, embodied in the 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education, along with highly centralized government control over education, largely guided Japanese education until 1945, when they were massively repudiated.[107]
Education in French controlled West Africa during the late 1800s and early 1900s was different from the nationally uniform compulsory education of France in the 1880s. "Adapted education" was organized in 1903 and used the French curriculum as a basis, replacing information relevant to France with "comparable information drawn from the African context". For example, French lessons of morality were coupled with many references to African history and local folklore. The French language was also taught as an integral part of adapted education.
Today, there is some form of compulsory education in most countries. Due to population growth and the proliferation of compulsory education, UNESCO has calculated that in the next 30 years more people will receive formal education than in all of human history thus far.
How did all these changes come about? Well, you cannot know about these changes without first getting to know how education originated in Nigeria. So, this article will give you every detail concerning the history of education in Nigeria from the 19th century to date.
The history of education in Nigeria is as old as the human race. This is because education has been a part of Nigerians even before the arrival of the colonial masters (the Britains). Parents taught their children informally about their culture, social activities, and practical skills.
On the back of the printing press, schools gradually developed a curriculum in which the subjects considered most important were taught. By the mid-1600s, the modern library and the pencil were introduced, marking the first examples of educational technology. Later still, the 19th century marked the advent of textbooks and improvements in writing tools available to teachers and students, notably blackboards and chalk, as well as the use of ink pen rather than just pencil. During this period since the middle ages and until the latter half of the 20th century, learning has primarily been focused on the curriculum rather than the child. In other words, for a great many children, compulsory education has been monotonous affair, marked by rote learning and memorisation.
The role of text or writing in education also has a long history. According to the Bible, Moses used chiseled stone to convey the ten commandments in a form of writing, probably around the 7th century BC. Even though Socrates is reported to have railed against the use of writing, written forms of communication make analytic, lengthy chains of reasoning and argument much more accessible, reproducible without distortion, and thus more open to analysis and critique than the transient nature of speech. The invention of the printing press in Europe in the 15th century was a truly disruptive technology, making written knowledge much more freely available, very much in the same way as the Internet has done today. As a result of the explosion of written documents resulting from the mechanization of printing, many more people in government and business were required to become literate and analytical, which led to a rapid expansion of formal education in Europe. There were many reasons for the development of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and the triumph of reason and science over superstition and beliefs in Europe, but the technology of printing was a key agent of change.