Data Analysis

English Language which is the Language of the people who are looked upon as being technologically and economically more advanced is also seen as passport to whitemen land. No doubt formal education is the educational system that produced men and

women who are rooted in western life styles. However, the following factors enhanced the spread of formal/western education in Nigeria especially Igboland.

4.4.1 Western Religion and Islamic Religion

Western religion and Islamic religion are among the factors that enhanced the spread of formal education in Nigeria and Igboland in particular. While Islamic religion came with Islamic education, Christian religion came with western education.

Christian missionaries used school education to convert Africans to Christian religion and that was why they used mission house for church service and school education.

Alutu (cited by Okolo, 2012a) states that “Christianity and education had developed pari passu” (p.1). Western religion came with western education and anything that happens to one affects the other; and that is why the school calendar was designed to favour western religion. Igbo people on other hand, embraced western religion at expense of Igbo traditional religion thereby ensuring the survival of western education in Igbo society. Maduagwu (2015) noted that the presence of Igbo Muslims leaders such as Alhaji Suleiman Onyeama, Alhaji Abdulaziz Ude and Alhaji Yahaya Ndu confirmed that many Igbo have embraced Islamic religion and its education.

Therefore, western religion and Islamic religion are factors that enhanced formal or western education in Nigeria especially the Igboland .

4.4.2 Urbanisation

According to Shorter(1998), urbanization is the social process by which people acquire material and non-material elements of culture, behaviour and ideas that originate in, or are distinctive of the city or town”(p. 35). Urbanisation promotes western education because it is one of the features of modernity that enables people to abandon their traditional ways of life. Afigbo (1981) asserted that urbanisation was

unknown in pre-colonial Igboland. The people lived in villages, village-group and clans and have similar beliefs and values, but in modern Igbo society urbanisation enables one to acquire new ideas, belief and life styles because of the presence of people with different lifestyles and behaviours. Achunike (2002) confirmed that often obscure village life and rugged individualism were made simple in urban areas and one can easily learn other people’s way of life. Thus, Durkheim (cited by Ritzer, 2012), was right by stating that traditional societies were held together primarily by non-material social facts known as common morality or a strong collective conscience, while the complexities of modern society led to the decline in the strength of collective conscience.

4.4.3 The Use of Modern Technology

Ofoefuna (1999) explained that educational technology helps to promote western education because it enhances teaching and make learning easier and meaningful to the young learners. Besides the materials such as pen, textbooks, text exercise, books, digital libraries, instructional materials such as white board, marker and computer.

The use of mobile phones make teaching and learning easier in modern society.

Anyanwu (2014) asserts that internet equipped the teacher and learners with proper educational materials. He added that a teacher can record the video of his or her lecture and post it to the internet for his students to watch it via internet anywhere in the world. According to Haralambos and Holborn (2008) the development of technology such as satellite communication, modern means of transportation and internet have shrunk the world, making learning and cultural contacts easier.

Therefore modern technology ensures the survival of western education especially on the area of transmitting western values.

4.4.4 Industrialisation

Nnonyelu (2009) noted that it is true that a semblance of industrial activities such as pottery making, wood carving, cloth weaving and blacksmithing occurred in different parts of Igboland before the advent of western education, but industrialization has its origin with the advent of western religion and education.

Ijoma (2002) affirms that “the coming of Christian Missionaries to Igboland provided western education and some crafts and industries which Igbo quickly acquired” (p.

50).

Therefore, the desire to acquire skills for industrialization or a full developed capitalist economy made people to attend formal school in Igboland today. Nwadialor (2013) rightly observed that large scale and small scale industries such as garri-processing industries, paint industry, plastic industry, aluminum extrusion plant, a paper packaging industries, bottled water industry, block moulding industries are littered all over the Igboland in contemporary society. Therefore, industrialisation is one of the factors that enhanced western education in Igboland.

4.4.5 The Use of English Language as Lingua Franca in Nigeria

The influence of British colonial masters and the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria make English language the central language in Nigeria. Infact, to make communication easier among Nigerians, English language was promoted as the common means of communication. According to Obi (2004) as a way of showing greater concern over the educational situation of the country and to appreciate the importance of indigenous languages in Nigeria the government through the national policy on education recommended the teaching of Nigerian languages in schools, but the fact that English language has become the lingua franca helps to enhance western

education in Nigeria. The use of English language as a lingua franca in Nigeria ensures the survival of western education in Igbo society. This is because English language is a foreign language that came with western education. However, having identified the factors that enhanced the survival of formal or western education in Igboland, the study of the problems of formal or western education will aid a comprehensive investigation into the nature of Igbo traditional education in twenty-first century Igbo society.

4.5 The Problems of Formal / Western Education in Twenty-first Century Igbo