Modupe Adefeso-Olateju: In the beginning was the philosophy of education – Part 1 (Y! Policy Hub)

by Modupe Adefeso-Olateju

Mo Adefeso (Y! Policy Hub)

The report of the national curriculum conference provided guidelines in three broad areas: needs of young people and adults, socioeconomic needs and aspirations of the country, and curricular content.

It is apparent to observers and stakeholders that the Nigerian education sector is in crisis. High rates of student failure, teacher disaffection and financial inefficiencies are indicative of a schooling system that is failing to prepare its young people for productive living. In a country where about 60% of the population is below the age of twenty five, this is a very grave situation.  This 4-part series is not intended to rehash the state of the nation or to reiterate educational failure in the country; rather, it is focused on revisiting history with a view to examining the foundation of our educational system; the Nigerian philosophy of education.  It assesses the clarity of this philosophy, its practicability and fitness-for-purpose today and in the future.

‘At its best, education equips individuals with the skills and substantive knowledge that allows them to define and to pursue their own goals, and also allows them to participate in the life of their community as full-fledged, autonomous citizen[i]s[1]. Education clearly has immense potential to shape a nation’s development.  An examination of the thinking that guides education will thus shed light on the path of Nigeria as a national entity.

 

What is a Philosophy of Education?

To launch this narrative, we must commence with an understanding of what a philosophy of education is, what it means in a national context, and what Nigeria’s education philosophy is.

In the field of Education, the study of philosophy is considered to be one of those that provide educational foundations, and therefore the basis upon which educational policy and practice are built.  Philosophy as a discipline is inherently an intellectual field open to several interpretations. It is also a field that is open to commentary and critique even by those that are not philosophers.  It is thus by nature essentially contested because “what counts as a sound philosophical work within one school of thought, or socio-cultural or academic setting, may not be so-regarded (and may even be the focus of derision) in a different one”[ii].

At the macro level, a national education philosophy is a thought-paradigm that connects a country’s purpose for education to its education policies, theories of learning, teaching and learning practices, and curriculum design.  It is firmly grounded in the historical context, values and future aspirations of the country, and reflected in education policy and practice.

 

The first Nigerian National Curriculum Conference

Nigeria’s philosophy of education was an outcome of the first Nigerian National Curriculum Conference held in 1969.  This conference produced a report, The Philosophy of Nigerian Education, which formed the bedrock of the nation’s educational paradigm.  To translate the philosophical aims and objectives into policy, a seminar on National Policy was later held in 1973 where the recommendations of the National Curriculum Conference were adopted, and the objectives of education as embodied by the Second National Development Plan of 1970-74 reiterated. The Federal Government’s White Paper was publicised in 1979 and revised in 1981, 1985 and 1998.

The 1969 National Curriculum Conference, which was convened in Lagos under the auspices of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), set the standard for African countries in its multistakeholder approach to educational reform.  Private sector and civil society representatives from an array of sectors, industries and social groups joined education experts and representatives of the government to review the inherited legacy of colonial education, deliberate on the purpose of education for the young nation, and form new national goals that would ensure that a country of well-educated and skilled patriots was built.  Given that THE conference was not designed for a technical grouping of professionals, participants were not expected to create new curricula. They were simply charged with providing a strategic focus to the nation’s educational sector, bearing in mind the keen aspirations of a country which faced myriad external and internal threats by being newly independent of British imperialism and concurrently emerging from a brutal civil war which had left an ethnically fractured society in its wake.  The design of the revised curriculum would follow in subsequent years.

The report of the national curriculum conference provided guidelines in three broad areas: needs of young people and adults, socioeconomic needs and aspirations of the country, and curricular content.  These guidelines were thus aimed at developing the micro (individual) and macro (collective) levels of society as well as establishing a mechanism (curriculum content) for enabling Nigerians to lead productive and satisfying lives at the individual and societal levels.

After several structured deliberations, nine decision areas were outlined:

  1. National philosophy of education
  2. Goals of primary education
  3. Objectives of secondary education
  4. Purposes of tertiary education
  5. The role of teacher education
  6. Functions of science and technical education
  7. The place of women’s education
  8. Education for living
  9. Control of public education

 

From these nine decision areas, sixty five recommendations were made. Part 2 of this article will focus mainly on the first decision area; the National philosophy of education.

[i] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/education-philosophy

[ii] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/education-philosophy

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Modupe Adefeso-Olateju is an Education Policy Consultant, with expertise in public and private school effectiveness, and the design of Public-Private Partnerships in Education. She holds a PhD in Education and International Development from the Institute of Education, University of London. Modupe sits on the board of the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council London, and is passionate about helping young people fulfil their academic and career potential.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Comments (8)

  1. sure description and steadfast

  2. justify the role of philosophy in nigerian education

  3. Comment:anything good is always productive, is b
    y coincidence for me to come across this marvellous handwork. hopefully more of this shall follow. more blessings.

  4. Our education is the regurgitative type. It doesn’t make us creative.

  5. Thank you Modupe, this is quiet informing. It is also refreshing that you did not- and are not going- to bore us with the malady in our educational system.

    looking forward to reading all 4 parts.

  6. Very enlightening for me. Nice of you to put Nigerian Education in Context Mo. I’m looking forward to the concluding part of this write up. Kudos.

  7. Our education really needs a lot of help, although the government should focus its resources on primary and secondary education, and find a way to provide indirect support (loans etc) at the tertiary level. Quality and relevant education at the 2 lower levels is the bedrock of development.

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