DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
The commencement of TVET in Nigeria had a slow beginning and its development was impaired, compared to conventional education which had voluntary agencies as its pioneers. According to Fafunwa (1974, p. 195), this was partially attributed to its capital intensive nature in terms of staff and facilities required, and because the focus of ‘the Christian Missionaries as it was then was mainly on training people to read the bible rather than turn screws and prime water-pumps’. More so, the basic curriculum at schools focused on three main areas, namely Reading, Writing and Arithmetic otherwise referred to as ‘3Rs’ (Ndubueze, Iyoke, Okoh, & Beatrice, 2015). Hence, the Western Education which was introduced in 1842 never stressed the acquisition for practical skills that will make its recipient reliant, rather its purpose was to equip whoever acquires it the right of place to serve missionaries (Akanbi, 2017). Prior to the introduction of Western education, there had been the learning of practical education through the apprenticeship system, but this was gradually eroded due to its exclusion from the education practised by the missionaries. The exclusion of the then-existing apprenticeship practice culminated in the production of students with head knowledge, heart underutilised and without practical use of hands (Akanbi, 2017, p. 1). This outcome is contrary to Akinpelu’s (1981, p. 82) view that “the hand and the brain evolved together, and the liberal and conventional education, on the other hand must go together, inseparably, if violence is not to be done to the natural process of growth in man.”
In 1925, the Memorandum on Native Education in British Tropical Africa emerged, which was an off-shoot of the Phelps-Stokes Commission report, published in 1922, which showed the “ appalling low government aid and the dubious quality of education” in Africa (Taiwo, 1980, p. 70). The Memorandum became the first broad principle set as a framework for education and gave prominence to the importance of TVET (ibid). It stressed that “education should be adapted to the mentality, aptitudes, occupations and traditions of the various people, conserving as far as possible all sound and healthy elements in the fabrics of their social life” (Taiwo, 1980, p. 70). However, in the words of Yakubu (2011), technical education received less attention from the government until the world economic depression in the 1930s, which made it wasteful for the colonial administration to continue bringing expatriates to meets its needs. This led to the establishment of training institutions by the
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colonial administrations, to produce middle level technical manpower. Among the training schools established was the Yaba Higher College, which came into existence in 1932.
During the colonial period, there were three different types of educational systems operating concurrently in Nigeria, namely Traditional, Quranic, and Western. According to Imam (2012), each of these operated at a different pace, with differing growth of Western education. The western education as adopted during the colonial period by the British administrators consisted of four stages, namely primary, secondary, sixth form and higher education (Fabunmi, 2009).
In 1954, there was a change from the 8-6-2-3 to the 6-5-2-3 system of education by the British colonial administrators (Gusau, 2008). This change, represented as 8yrs of primary, 6yrs of post primary, 2yrs of higher school certificate and 3yrs of university education changed to to 6yrs of primary, 5yrs of post primary, 2yrs of higher school certificate and 3 yrs of university education, was due to the clamour for self-governance and educational autonomy by Nigerians. This change led to the decline in the number of years spent in primary and post primary education respectively.
According to Taiwo (1980, p. 140), in 1960, the Ashby Commission report, titled “Investment in Education” emerged. This document stressed the importance of technical and commercial education and emphasised that it should be a compulsory part of the training components in primary and post primary schools, so that those who pass through it would develop an appreciation of manual and skilled labour. This recommendation from the report resulted in the establishment of a number of comprehensive high schools; although these institutions soon reverted to more traditional grammar-focused education systems due to lack of funding and adequate monitoring.
However, on attainment of independence in 1969, Nigeria became dissatisfied with the colonial form of education which could not answer to the needs of Nigerians and decided on a national curriculum conference that will deliberate on the needs and aspirations of Nigerians (Fabunmi, 2009). The conference was convened in Lagos by the Nigerian Educational Research Council (NERC) in September 1969 with three major considerations namely: necessities of the society; essential elements of the curriculum, and the importance of young people. The conference also considered the need to change from the British form of education that had no positive impact for citizens of the country (Gusau, 2008). Similar to the Ashby Commission report, the conference as part of its recommendation flagged the inclusion of
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technical and vocational subjects which were conspicuously missing in the British form of education (Wodi & Dokubo, 2012).
3.2.1 Emergence of the First Education Policy in Nigeria
As a follow-up, a seminar which brought together professionals from different interests groups, volunteers and external bodies within Nigeria was organised in 1973 to consolidate the gains of the National Curriculum Conference, and to deliberate on the nature of a national policy for a nation state like Nigeria (FRN, 2013). The outcome of the seminar was the first draft of the National Policy on Education in 1977. This policy laid the foundation of the 6-3- 3-4 system of education, which was translated to mean 6yrs of primary education, 3yrs of junior secondary education, 3yrs of secondary education, and 4yrs of university education. According to Osami (2013) and Wodi and Dokubo (2012), the inception of the policy harmonised the system of education in the country with new concepts and ideologies, thereby giving prominence to TVET.
Consequently, the emergence of the first national policy on education in Nigeria in 1977 has given birth to revisions to policies in 1981, 1998, 2004, 2011 and 2013. The 2004 review was based on nine modifications of which the eighth was to reposition science, technical and vocational education in the scheme of national education for optimum performance (FRN, 2013). The most recent review to the 2013 edition of the policy was to update the previous editions and to also cater for recent development in the context of the transformation agenda and ensuring strategic plans in education. These strategic plans in education have engendered a role for education as an investment for economic, social and political development; an aggregate tool of empowerment for the poor and socially marginalised groups, and an effective means of developing the full capacities and potentials of human resource (FRN, 2013, p. ii). Others include the development of a competent workforce through the acquisition of practical life skills relevant to the world of work as a veritable means of developing sound intelligent learning societies, fit and relevant to the 21st century (ibid). According to the policy, the
achievement of all these can only be possible through strategic and collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders (FRN, 2013).
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