HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

INTRODUCTION

This unit is designed to give you an insight view of some major concepts in History of education. It will also expose you to concepts of history, sources of history as well as that of education, forms of education and history of education. By the end of the unit, you would have had an over-all view of the importance of history of education.

 OBJECTIVES

By the end of the unit, you should be able to:

•  explain the basic concepts “History” and “education” respectively; 
• discuss the two main sources of history; 
• distinguish between formal and informal education; 
• define what history of education is; and 
• give, at least five reasons why history of education should be studied in our teacher education programmes. 

 EXPLANATION OF THE TERM ‘HISTORY’

History is not mere storytelling. It is also not a mere fabrication. History is an account of what actually happened in the past which has a link to what is happening at present and can help in planning or projecting for the future. In other words, history is about yesterday, today and tomorrow. We study important development in human existence in the past for the development of today.

Historical records or accounts are presented in sequential, coherent, consistent and systematic order. Logical presentation is an important ingredient of history. Bias and prejudice are not allowed or encouraged. The historian tries to present issues, incidents or events concerning people and places in their unbiased form. He tries to dig into important areas of interest. The historian goes beyond ‘they said’ and seeks to find out why and how it happened. An historian is not usually in a hurry. He takes time to evaluate the necessary information received. He compares and analyses the information and its sources so as to come up with a balanced and acceptable account. History is an account because it aims at a balanced information of true places, people and events of the past. It cannot be fabricated to suit the interest of the writer or historian but seeks to represent the true past into present. History gives account of real names of people, places, time and incidents that actually took place at the recorded time. History, therefore, is a recreation of the true picture of important persons, places, events of the past for the present and future generation (Amaele, 2003)

Exercise 1:

• History is not the same as storytelling. Discuss. 

Sources of History

There are so many sources of gathering information of the major characters, places or incidents of the past. This study will limit the sources to two major areas, namely primary and secondary sources.

Primary Sources

This refers to various information, about real names of people, places and events, gathered by the historian from somebody or people who was or were eye-witness to the incident. If the historian gathered the information himself at the time of happening, the account also is a primary source. The primary source could be oral or written. It could also be through video, internet or other scientific procedures like the archeological findings. For instance, an account of a motor accident by a victim or a passersby is a primary source of history.

Secondary Sources

When a historian consults books written by somebody or persons who was or were not eye-witness (es) to the incident he is referring to secondary sources of information. Secondary sources also refer to oral information given out by somebody or persons who was or were not privileged to have first hand information on the event. Hence, like primary sources, secondary sources could be in oral or written form. A report of the outcome of a football match played last week by somebody as given or narrated to him/her by his/her friend who watched the match life is a secondary source of history.

Exercise 2:
List out five history books which were written by direct experience Mention other five history books classified as secondary sources.

Concept of Education

How do you define the word education? We’ll consider the one given for us below: The word ‘education’ is exclusively used for the development of human beings in the cognitive, affective, psychomotor and psycho- productive domains. There is a general agreement among educationists and educators that education involves a desirable change in human behaviour through the process of teaching and learning. This means that a human being who exhibits undesirable behaviours from the point of view of the acceptable societal norms cannot be adjudged an educated person, despite the fact that he had passed through the four walls of an educational institution. The society, generally, expects a kind of change from an educated person. Education, as a process of initiating the child into
cherished norms and skills, is designed and implemented by the more matured or the adult members of the society to effect the desirable changes in the younger ones, from one generation to the other.

Fafunwa (1974) defined education as what each generation gives to its younger ones, which makes them to develop attitudes, abilities, skills and other behaviours which are of positive value to the society in which they live. This position reflects the sociological perspective.

Education, is a social service, provided world-wide with multiple objectives in mind. The objectives vary from the acquisition of basic skills required for a more rapid growth of the economy and the basic knowledge for the individual to function effectively in the society. Etymologically, education derived its meaning from two Latin words ‘educare’ and ‘educere’ respectively. The word ‘educare’ is interpreted to mean; to train or to form or to mould. Education here seems to be sociologically biased. In other words, educare implies that the society trains, forms or moulds the individual to achieve the societal needs and aspirations. This perspective of education has little to consider on the natural potentialities of the individual child.

On the contrary, the word ‘educere’ is interpreted to mean: to build, to lead or to develop. This perspective of the concept is mostly favoured by the humanists, who insist that the function of education is to develop the natural potentialities in the child to enable him function in the society according to his abilities, interest and needs. This perspective of the concept education is child-centred, whereas the former is society-centred or subject matter-centred.

From the ongoing discussion, therefore, education could be understood to mean the total development of the individual child, through acceptable methods and techniques, according to his abilities and interests, as well as the needs of the society, to take his rightful place and contribute adequately
to the advancement of his society (Amaele 2003).