The Goals of Pre-Primary and Primary Education in Nigeria

We have just identified the Nation's educational goals to which the philosophy of Nigerian education is linked. As mentioned earlier, the Nation's goals of education are reflected in the goals and objective of education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Even if pre-primary education is not one of the formal levels of education where government is directly involved in its funding, yet the National Policy covers it. In other words, the National Policy on Education is concerned about the well- being of the individual at whatever age or level of education.

In unit one, you have learnt the goals of pre-primary and primary education. However, for the purpose of emphasis and to be in a better position to see the relationship between the goals of primary education and the national goals, we shall state the goals here again. The purpose of pre-primary education, which according to the NPE is the education given in an educational institution to children aged 3 – 5 + are as follows: 

[a] to effect a smooth transition from home to school,
[b] to prepare the children for the primary level of education
[c] to provide adequate care and supervision for the children while their parents are away at work (on the farm, in the markets, offices, etc) 

[d] to inculcate social norms
[e] to inculcate in the child the spirit of inquiry and creativity, through the exploration of nature, the environment, art, music and playing with toys.
[f] to develop a sense of cooperation and team spirit
[g] to learn good habits, especially good health habits and
[h] to teach the rudiments of numbers, letters, colours, shapes, forms, etc. through play.

A close look at the goals of pre-primary education and the national goals of education will tell you something. That is, the national goal is not directly reflected here since it is not a formal level of education. So, whatever the children do or learn at this age are to prepare them for the formal level of education. The situation is however different when it comes to primary education. Now let us look at the goals of education at the primary level.

According to the NPE, primary education is the education given in an institution for children aged 6 to 11+. The goals are:

1.  to inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy, and the ability to communicate effectively. 
2. to lay a sound basis for scientific and reflective thinking 
3.  to give citizenship education as a basis for effective participation in and contribution to the life of the society. 
4.  to mould the character and develop sound attitude and morals in the child. 
5.  to develop in the child the ability to adapt to his changing environment. 
6. to give the child opportunities for developing manipulative skills that will enable him to function effectively in the society within the limits of his capacity and 
7. to provide the child with basic tools for further educational advancement including preparation for trades and crafts of the locality. 

I want you to quickly compare the above goals of primary education with national goals of education which we identified earlier on. Is there any similarity? Yes, there are many similarities. In fact, we can say that the goals of primary education are based on the goals of Nigerian education. Then, why is this so? It is simply because of the fact that primary education is the key to the success or failure of the entire education system. As you know primary education is the first level or the foundation upon which all other levels of education are built. Therefore, if the goals of primary education could be effectively pursued and realised, then every product of the school system will be a good citizen. What do you think we can do so as to realise the goals of primary education?

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

Explain the major focus of Nigeria's Philosophy of Education
Your answer should include

•  making the individual an effective citizen 
•  providing equal educational opportunities for all citizens at all levels. 

 The Policy Statements and Implementation

 Pre-Primary Education

We are now going to discuss the National Policy on Education as it affects pre-primary education. The purpose of doing this is for you to be familiar with the official policy of government on this level of education. You will then be in a position to determine whether any particular policy is appropriate or not. Moreover, you will be able to suggest ways of ensuring the effective implementation of the policy. As stated in the National Policy on Education (NPE), the policy statements which are aimed at achieving the objectives of pre-school education include:

1. Encourage private efforts in the provision of pre-primary education. 
2. Make provision in Teacher Training Institutions for student teachers who want to specialise in pre-primary education, 
3. Ensure that the medium of instruction will be principally the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community. 
4. Ensure that the main method of teaching in the pre-primary institutions will be through play and that the curriculum of Teacher Training Colleges is appropriately oriented to achieve this, 
5.  Regulate and control the operation of pre-primary education as well as ensure that the staff of pre-primary institutions are adequately trained and that essential equipment is provided. 

Before we go on to identify the policy statement on primary education, let us see how far the above policy statements on pre-primary education have been implemented. There is no doubt that the policy of encouraging private efforts in the provision of pre-primary education is being effectively implemented. This is because private individuals and organization are having their ways in the establishment and management of pre-primary schools. The rate at which they are springing up in every part of the country tends to confirm this. Similarly, they determine how much to charge as school fees without any measure of control by the government. We shall discuss the implications of this policy in the next section.


As regards the policy of ensuring that the medium of instruction will be principally the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community is concerned, we can say no. A visit to any pre-primary school establishment in any part of the country will confirm this. As a matter of fact, many parents send their children to the pre-primary schools purposely to learn to speak English fluently. Therefore, any school proprietor or proprietress who uses the mother tongue will not be having pupils in his or her school. This means the school will fold up.

On the training of teachers for Early Childhood Education, it could be said that the policy has been implemented. This is because both the Colleges of Education and some universities have in the last two decades been offering courses in Early Childhood Education up to the Ph.D. Level. However, as regards the method of teaching and the quality of teachers in the pre-primary schools, very little has been done to implement the policy statements. For instance, if you visit majority of the pre-primary school establishments in any part of the country you will see that they do not have professionally qualified teachers in early childhood education. In some cases, some of the teachers are not even professional teachers at all. Similarly, most of the pre-primary schools do not have adequate facilities and equipment. This is not limited to the schools in rural areas alone. In fact, we can say that there are more badly equipped schools than the well-equipped schools in the large cities. What are the implications of both the implemented and non-implemented policy statements? We shall discuss this later.

Primary Education

The policy statements on primary education are also intended to ensure the successful achievement of the stated goals of primary education. Unlike the policy on pre-school education, the policy statements of primary education are many. This is quite understandable since primary education is the foundation for all other levels of education. We may not be able to indicate all the policy statements here but some of them that I consider to be very important for us to discuss. You can pick a copy of the NPE and read on your own.

The first is making primary education free and proposes to make it compulsory as soon as possible. We can say that with the UPE programme of 1976 and the recently launched UBE programme, primary education has been made free to a reasonable extent. The UBE Bill has made basic education which includes the primary schools free and compulsory in Nigeria.

On curriculum, government prescribes the following curricular activities for primary schools – inculcation of literacy and numeracy, the study of science, the study of the social norms and values of the local communities and the country as a whole through civics and social studies, the giving of health and physical education, moral and religious instruction, the encouragement of aesthetic, creative and musical activities, the teaching of local crafts and domestic science and agriculture. Again, this aspect of the policy has been adequately taken care of. As at now, there are about 16 subjects in the primary school curriculum from which appropriate or necessary ones are selected. There are however some core courses which are taught in all public primary schools in Nigeria. These include Mathematics, Language study, Cultural Arts, Integrated Science, Social Studies and Physical and Health Education. But government has not been able to make provision for all the facilities promised to ensure the success of the curricular activities.


As regards the medium of instruction, the policy states that the mother tongue or language of the immediate community will be used in the lower classes and English language in the upper classes – that is primary four to six. One may even say that there are instances of compliance with this policy and some instances where they are not. For instance in many public primary schools, the mother tongue is even used in teaching pupils in the upper classes where English should be used. On the other hand, there are schools where English language is used as medium of instruction in the lower classes. This is particularly common in private schools and some public schools in the urban centres.

The teacher pupil ratio of 1:20 (pre-primary) and 1:30 (primary) is the official policy with the provision that 1:40 would be acceptable for the transition period. Except for some schools in the urban centres, we could even say that the inconsistencies in government programmes in the last two decades have left the public primary schools under populated. That is, in many schools, the teacher pupil ratio is much lower than the 1:30 proposed.

Abolishing the Primary School Leaving Certificate Examination is another policy that has been implemented. Unlike the past, when pupils in primary six will have to sit for their final examination in a day or two, the Continuous Assessment is now being used in many states.


Finally, on discouraging the incidence of dropouts among primary schools pupils, this has not been done. The incidence of dropout has even been encouraged by the problems of primary education in the last two decades. We discussed how the inconsistencies in the management of primary education in the past led to the mass withdrawal of children from public schools.

So far, we have discussed the policy statements implementation at the pre-primary and primary levels. Let us now look at the implications of the policy statements generally.