Education System in Nigeria and Kenya Compared

TASK
Write a well documented paper on the education system with specific reference to: brief background, aims/goals of education,thestructureoftheeducation system, administration, financing,teachingprofession,challengesand lessons Kenya would learn or borrow. Choose one of these countries Nigeria, Australia, Canada, or China.

Background of Nigeria Education
Nigeria education has evolved through a number of phases. The education system in Nigeria has been formed by a number of influences, – the colonial influence, the influence of the military rule in Nigeria and then the impact of independence and a new constitution.

The progress of education in the southern states of Nigeria reveals the involvement of the Christian missionaries towards the education system in Nigeria during the colonial period.
Nigeria education was slowly but soundly developing during the colonial time until the conclusion of World War II. The Christian missionaries introduced the western education system in Nigeria in the mid nineteenth century. Three fundamentally distinct education systems existed in Nigeria in 1990. They were, – the indigenous system, the Quranic schools, and formal European-style educational institutions.

Higher Education in Nigeria originated with the colonial government launching the Yaba higher college.
Education in Nigeria became the responsibility of the state and local councils according to the 1979 constitution. First six years of primary education was made mandatory, which was a significant factor in the development of education in Nigeria.

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There has been a noticeable upgrading of educational facilities in Nigeria in the latest years. The apparent rate for adult illiteracy in the year 2000 is 35.9%.
The Structure of Nigeria Education System
The local and state governments manage primary and secondary education in Nigeria. Higher education is the responsibility of both the federal and the state governments.

Education is free but not compulsory at present in Nigeria. The formal education system includes six years of primary school, three years of junior secondary school, three years of senior secondary school, and four years of university education consequently directing towards a bachelors level degree in the majority of the subjects. The annual term of school in Nigeria stretch through ten months, and is sectioned into three ten to twelve weeks periods each at the pre-primary, primary, junior and senior secondary stages. Nigeria Education includes a significant stage of language education. Primary education in Nigeria starts in the native language but brings in English in the third year.
Administration and Organization of Education System
The current administrative system is divided into the Federal Capital Territory and 36 states. The management of education in Nigeria is based on this federal system, so that while basic educational policy regarding structure, curriculum and school year is centrally determined, some powers over educational delivery are devolved to state and local government. In effect, education is administered by three branches of government: primary education is under the control of local governments, secondary schools fall under the jurisdiction of the state government and higher education is administered by both the federal and state government.

Administrative Bodies and Agencies
* The Federal Ministry of Education, through the National Council of Education (NCE), coordinates education policies and procedures through the federation.
* The Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) is an independent body of professional educators acting in an advisory capacity to both the federal and state ministries of education, universities, institutes of education and other education agencies.
* The National Universities Commission (NUC) operates under the Federal Ministry of Education and is mandated to approve programmes, to monitor universities and to accredit programmes. The NUC provides a full listing of recognised federal, state and private universities in Nigeria.
* The National Examinations Council?  (NECO) is responsible for conducting the Junior and Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), as is the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
* The National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) conducts the National Technical Certificate (NTC)/National Business Certificate (NBC) examinations, as well as the advanced level versions of these exams in a number of trades/discipline such as engineering and construction.
* The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has responsibility for the establishment of minimum standards in polytechnics, technical colleges and other technical institutions in the Federation. In addition to providing standardised minimum guide curricula for technical and vocational education and training. The NBTE supervises and regulates, through an accreditation process, the programmes offered by technical institutions at secondary and post-secondary levels. It is also involved with the funding of polytechnics owned by the Government of the Federation of Nigeria. The NBTE provides a full listing of approved polytechnics and technical colleges in Nigeria.
* The National Commission for Colleges and Education co-ordinates all aspects of non-degree teacher education in Nigeria.
* The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) conducts the Matriculation Examination for entry into all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria.
* The National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) was established in 1972 to encourage, promote and coordinate educational research programmes in Nigeria. This agency provides significant data on educational problems within Nigeria and its work underpins the reform agenda nationally.
The Federal Ministry of Education owns and runs universities, polytechnics, technical colleges, colleges of education and secondary schools. The remaining tertiary institutions are owned and funded by state governments, while other secondary schools are owned and funded by state governments, communities and private organizations.The administration and management of state government-owned secondary schools falls under the remit of state Ministries of Education. The administration of public primary schools falls under the local education authorities.
Aims/Goals of Education in Nigeria
The purpose of education refers to the aims, goals and objectives of education.
Abimbola (1993), while clarifying curriculum aims, goals and objectives, cited Zais (1976) who proposed the use of purposes as targets because he, (Zais) is of the opinion that “aims”, “goals” and “objectives” are purposes at differing target distances and levels of specifity. Aims are the expression of purpose at the highest level such as the national level which can only be achieved in a distant future after the child has passed out of school.

“Aims” according to Broudy (1971), are statements that describe expected life outcomes based on some value schemes either consciously or unconsciously borrowed from philosophy “(p. 306). Aims are not related directly to school or classroom outcomes.

???Goals” and “Objectives” are educational purposes directly related to school and classroom outcomes respectively. Goals are expression of purposes specified for achievement at each level of education. When the purpose of education for a country is being discussed, the term “aim of education” may be used.

Purpose of Education in Nigeria
The purpose of education in Nigeria includes unparalleled development of science and its application to industry and technology for better living. The National Policy on Education spells out the purpose of Education in Nigeria as an “Instrument par excellence for effecting national development; to use education as a tool to achieve its national objectives; to make such education relevant to the needs of the individual and set its goal in terms of the kind of society desired in relation to the environment and realities of the modern world and rapid social changes??? (p. iv).In section 1, (p. 7) of the National Policy on Education,the observation is made that since the national policy on education is geared toward achieving that part of its national objectives that can be achieved using education as a tool, no policy on education ban be formulated without first identifying the whole philosophy and objectives of the nation. Reference is therefore made to the five main national objectives of Nigeria already stated in the National Development plan and endorsed as the necessary foundation for the National Policy on Education.

These are the building of: a free and democratic society; a just and egalitarian society; a united, strong and self-reliant nation;a great and dynamic economy and a land of bright and full opportunities for citizens

The implication of this is that the Nigeria Philosophy of Education according to Adeyinka (1992) is based on: The integration of the individual into a sound and effective citizen; and Equal education opportunities at all levels, both within and outside the formal school system.

For the philosophy to be in harmony with Nigerias national objective, it has to be geared towards the values, aims and objectives stated at the National curriculum conference of 1969 and specifically stated in the National Policy on Education as the General Objectives of Education in Nigeria which are as follows:

(a) The inculcation of the right type of values and attitudes for the survival of the individual and of society. This is an objective which can concern mainly the affective domain;
(b) The inculcation of national consciousness and national unity. This is also an objective mainly in the affective domain;
(c) The training of the mind in the understanding of the world around. This is aimed at developing the intellectual aspect of human beings.
(d) The acquisition of appropriate skills, abilities and competencies both mental and physical as equipment for the individual to live and contribute to the development of his society. This objective is aimed at developing the intellectual, affective and psychomotor domains of human nature simultaneously. This is why education should be seen as aiming to develop all aspects of human persons simultaneously.

Aims of Education in Nigeria
Nigeria has been classified over the years among the developing nations of the world. That is, among those nations that are not as technologically advanced as Europe, United States of America and the Russia. These Countries are known to be largely illiterate and poor. They lack medical facilities especially when compared with the technologically advanced countries. The aims of education in these countries will be how to eradicate these problems. The aim of education in developing countries has been summarized by Adeyinka and Kolawde (1995) as follows:

1. Learning to live according to the old traditions of the people (society).
2. Learning to live according to the traditions of other countries in order to imbibe their religion, their culture and their social life.
3.Learning to live modern life of technologically advanced countries. Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Lesotho, all in Africa, have a common trend. All of them were colonies under European countries which became independent after serving their masters for a number of years. These countries and some others have been striving for a stable government, dynamic economy and education that can deliver the goods. This is the root of the aims of education in developing countries stated below:

1. To promote national unity and international understanding;
2. To remove social inequalities, poverty, high-way robbery, hunger, diseases, squalor; illiteracy, ignorance, superstition, pride and fear;
3. To provide individual happiness and pleasure, self- realization, public morality and aesthetic development;
4. To train for good citizenship, health improvement, vocational competence, industrial and commercial developments and adult literacy;
5. To produce adequate manpower for economic development so that there could be less dependence on expatriates;
6. To create a society with high moral standards;
7. To eradicate the problem of economic and technological dependence on the advanced countries of the world; and
8. To promote public enlightenment and civilized behavior.
(Adeyinka, et al; 1995)

Financing of Education in Nigeria
Financing of basic education
All three tiers of government??”federal, state, and local??”fund primary education.
Federal and state governments:
Capital expenditures (buildings, books, and furniture) come from the federal and state governments??™ share of the Federation Account.The Federation Account holds all federally collected revenues. The funds are divided among the three tiers of government according to a formula determined by the NationalAssembly. Some of the funds in this account accrue from government-owned mineral resources, a set percentage (13%) of which is returned to the states, apportioned on the basis of the states??™ original contributions. Thereafter, 15% of VAT revenues are distributed to the federal government, 50% to state governments, and 35% to local governments. Of the funds remaining within the Federation Account, 54.7% goes to the federal government, 24.7% to state governments, and 20.6% to local governments.State governments also pay the recurrent costs for managing State Primary Education Boards (SPEBs), Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs), and primary schools.

Local governments:
The local governments??™ 20.6% share of the Federation Account results in two types of local funding for education. First, at the state level, a percentage of the local share (a ???first charge???) is set aside for primary school teachers??™ salaries and allowances. Local governments may then use a part of what remains for direct assistance to primary schools. They also contribute own-source revenues to primary education.

Financing Higher Education.
Higher education relates to all forms of post-secondary education such as the Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Monotechnics and Professional schools (Abdu 2003).
Oghenekohwo (2004) classified the funding of higher education into two regimes namely:
– Pre-deregulation regime
– Deregulation regime
In the pre-deregulation regime, higher education funding in Nigeria was done by government or public funding alone. High priority was accorded to funding higher education, thereby creating a wrong impression amongst Nigerians that funding of higher education is the exclusive preserve of “governments. On the other hand in the deregulation regime, which is mostly a post Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) inevitability, things began to change. The benefits of the acquisition of any higher education programme now went largely to the individual as a “private good” for which
beneficiaries and their families should pay.In the submission of Okebukola (2003), he noted that “an additional concomitant of the private good is that, grants have been changed to loans, pacing major burdens on many university graduates”.

The financing of education should be the function of all the major stakeholders. This is because government alone cannot fund higher education. There are many stakeholders involved in the success of any educational system. The major stakeholders include the governments, educational institutions, parents/guardians and the private sector that employs the output of these institutions. Others include the students and the society in general. In private institutions, the incidence lies mostly on the individual while for the public sector ownership it lays on the public sector. The benefits of higher education should be identified. Some studies argued that education service should be above market forces and therefore should be provided free meaning that government should bear the cost of education so that the poor in the society can also get education. Other studies believed that not all levels of education ensures equity but rather there is higher private returns in higher education and as such individuals should be made to bear the cost of their higher education (Psacharopolous, 1996), while funding by the government should be limited to the basic education alone.

Teaching Profession in Nigeria.
In the past, to teach in primary school a person needed a Teacher Certificate Grade II (TCGDII) from four years of secondary school at a Grade II Teacher-training college. These were phased out after 1998, when the Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) became the required diploma for all primary and junior secondary school teachers. In 1996, out of approximately 420,000 primary school teachers in the country, about 80 percent had either the NCE or TCGDII (equally divided between the two).
The government created the National Teachers Institute (NTI) in 1978 to conduct programs that would upgrade teacher qualifications to the NCE level, with most of this training carried out by distance learning. Between 1993 and 1996, the NTI graduated 34,486 in their NCE distance learning programs. In 2000, it trained 20,000 teachers. A Bachelor of Education program with NTI received approval by the government at the end of 2000. NTI also conducts workshops and conferences on curriculum development and in other areas of teacher training.
To teach in senior secondary schools a person must have either a bachelors degree in education or a bachelors degree in a subject field combined with a postgraduate diploma in education. The faculty in senior secondary schools are among the best qualified in the country, almost all holding bachelors degree. A few teachers possess the NCE.
The bachelors degree programs in education are offered at major teacher universities. Of the 63 colleges of education offering the three-year NCE program, about a third are owned by the federal government, and about half by state governments. The remaining are privately owned. All are under the supervision of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), which sets and maintains standards and approves of courses and programs for all universities in Nigeria.
To teach at Nigerian universities, teachers must have qualifications that are similar to professors at U.S. and European universities, usually a doctorate. At the university level, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) represents university faculty, and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) bargains for the senior non-academic workers. The Academic Staff Unions of Polytechnics (ASUP) represents polytechnic faculty members. These unions are very active. The major teacher organization representing primary and secondary school teachers is the Nigeria Union of Teachers. Although it is very active, NUT has been unable to change the unsatisfactory conditions under which teachers work.
Another major concern of teachers is salary. Not only is payment often incomplete, but the salaries are low. Salaries are set by the local, state, and federal governments, depending on which level controls the institution..
Challenges of Education in Nigeria
Education is the bedrock of development. But unfortunately education in Nigeria is bisected with myriads of problems. These include:
Poor Preparation and Malpractices: Experts in the education sector have been able to identify examination malpractices with poor preparation of students for an examination, and lack of self confidence. In view of the rising costs of education students and even their parents will not ordinarily want to be held back by any form of deficit or failure in any of the required subjects hence will go to any length to ensure success.In some cases, some teachers at the secondary school level are involved by way of encouraging students to contribute money in order to secure the needed assistance during such examinations because they, the teachers are left with no other alternative considering the fact that they are aware of the inadequate preparation of their students as well as the lack of facilities to get them properly prepared before examination.

Exploitation and Educational Standard:A close assessment of activities in schools have revealed that, students are made to suffer undue amount of exploitation by school heads at both private and public schools in the name of enrolment fees and assurance of success in their examination and this they do in collaboration with the ministry officials who are suppose to inspect and monitor activities in schools to ensure standard compliance. Despite the fact that most of the schools lack basic learning facilities and a complete set of teachers.

In like manner, students are being surcharged in a number of ways in tertiary institutions either in the name of dues that are not accounted for, force purchase of reading and other learning materials at exorbitant rate or on services of which staff are being paid for as assigned responsibility and official provision made by the respective institution. All these lead to lowering of the academic ability of students.

Orientation and Educational Standard: In view of the prevalence of examination malpractices and other related irregularities in schools at all levels this day, the interest and habit of reading, procurement of books and other skills development materials has drastically dwindled among a number of students. This trend is also observed to have close relationship with rising sexual promiscuity among students.

Poor Parenting /Guidance
Parenting, entails caring, protection,guidance, provision of basic needs for a child up keep in order for him or her to be properly equipped to meet with the challenges of life, in accordance with the laws of the land. In desperation, many parents have decided to bring in additional innovation by way of not only involve in encouraging, but also finance activities in and around examination venues to effect malpractices in order to brighten the chances of their children or wards in qualifying examination to higher institutions and some even progress on this act through the tertiary level of education.

Poverty and Fall in Standard: Acquisition of Education knowledge is supposed to help us fight against-poverty, ignorance and disease. The process of acquiring this well desired knowledge has gradually turned money spinning venture for many of those in dire need of the knowledge and skill. It is now a source of exploitation from the service seekers with little or no consideration for quality of service rendered and facilities on ground, and made an offer for the highest bidder. A trend which has cut across all levels of education, from nursery school to tertiary institutions. The concept, ???poverty???, refers to a situation and process of serious deprivation or lack of resources and materials necessary for living within a minimum standard conducive for human dignity and well being (NEST, 1992: 16). Admission and being in school today is merely an ability to pay what is demanded in monetary terms by school operators and not on what could be offered academically. And this in essence widens the scope of poverty prevalence as well as the gap between the rich and the poor which education is designed to bridge. Little wonder why graduates from many of the institutions exhibits ignorance towards societal realities and lack of creativity, due to the inadequacies associated with the learning and training process which is also observed to be partly because many
of those that offer this service do so with greed.

The Need for Research Development: This research sub-sector that is grossly neglected in Nigeria and play upon indiscriminately is the basis for the socio economic, political, scientific and technological advancement of our most admired developed nations of the world today. Therefore, conscious effort towards qualitative and durable educational system needs to be put in place for posterity in Nigeria.
Funding /Constrains: The gross under funding of the educational sector in the country in general and the neglect of the maintenance of the physical facilities. Instructional and living conditions have deteriorated in many of these schools, classrooms, libraries and laboratories are nothing to write home about, all leading to decline in academic standards. Attention must be focused on these areas too if these educational institution are to get out of the woods and this is only possible through adequate funding. Since 1986 when the federal military government introduced the structural adjustment programme SAP, allocation of financial resource started to fall coupled with the consistent decline in the value of local currency till date. Which have also consistently affected the procurement of imported technical and scientific equipments, books, journals and other instructional needs in the educational system. Education system in Nigeria today, needs a total overhauling and restructuring, this reform is required to improve the performance of higher education in the country, the nation entered the 21st century insufficiently prepared to cope or compete in the global economy, where growth will be based even more heavily on technical and scientific knowledge (World Bank 1994). It is also a well known fact that the inadequacies always observed among many undergraduates and graduates alike is as a result of the inadequacies associated with the primary and the secondary education system in Nigeria.

Though, the system is expensive to keep afloat, quality however in any form is partly a function of the total fund made available to the system and judiciously utilized for the purpose to which it is meant for. Funds are required and necessary to maintain both the human and material resources of the system in order to achieve desired goals. Also there is the need for an effective monitoring of the management of fund presently being allocated to the sector, as effort should be intensify to improve on what is currently being allocated to the system.

Organizational Influence on Educational Standard
Many viewers have observed that, most corporate organizations today in the country are fond of employing series of measures which are in effect bias and unproductive. They indulge in an unfair selective judgment on applicants seeking employment opportunity into their establishment, by way of using certificate grades as well as institution attended as prerequisites for interview attendance and recruitment. In some cases, they rather prefer candidates with first class and second class grade certificate and those that attended the first generation universities at the detriment of some others with lesser grade who might be better if given equal opportunity. This is their own way of encouraging irregularities and malpractices in the process of grade acquisition by prospective job seekers, therefore compromising standard and perpetual dependence on the services of foreign expatriates for both medium and high tech services.

Lessons for Kenya.
It has been said that the criteria for assessing any educational system
are: the curriculum of study, the state of infrastructural facilities,
the quality of students, the quality and quantity of staff, the
competence of leadership, the level of funding and the direction and
consistency of policy.
In the area of curriculum and policy in Nigeria, the main problem is not with formulation as such but implementation. The implementation of laudable policies has often been hampered by incessant change of government, unstable academic calendars, poor and inadequate facilities, lack of motivation for staff, insecurity of life and property and the unwillingness of the products to make positive contribution to society. In this, Kenya can learn the importance of consistency in implementation of education policies despite changes in political leadership. Also the importance of proper motivation of teachers to ensure efficient and effective curriculum implementation.
Failure to adhere to effective curriculum implementation may lead Kenya the Nigerian way i.e. the Nigerian system churns out a
morally decadent and intellectually inept child who is a threat to both parents and society. The Nigerian youth are yet to imbibe the right type of values and attitudes. Rather, Nigerian schools and campuses have become breeding grounds for cultism, gangsterism, hooliganism, armed robbery, sexual promiscuity, examination malpractices, and a host of other vices. Instead of producing pragmatic and altruistic students, the Nigerian educational system
churns out students who are egoistic, individualistic and escapists who are not interested in solving societys problems.

In Nigeria, another area of serious decline is that of staffing. Time has gone when teachers were the best both in character and learning. What we have today is a pathetic story of pathetic teachers producing pathetic citizens. Kenya can learn the critical need of proper vetting of teachers to weed out rogue teachers before they teach wrong doctrine by bad example. A body to do the same needs to be put in place as the TSC seems overwhelmed by its broad mandate.
Teacher qualification is another area Kenya can borrow from Nigeria. While in Kenya people with a teaching certificate teach in primary schools, Nigeria is moving to diploma holders at this level.

Their tactic of systematic neglect has turned Nigerian
educational institutions to an arena of the absurd. Apart from
under-paying teachers (which had led to massive brain-drain), the money allocated to education falls kilometers short of the UNESCO recommended 25% of annual budget. The Kenyan primary free education concept can learn the importance of proper funding and the need to follow up to ensure the money ends up in the right use failure to which the poor state of infrastructure and consequent poor performance in public institutions will persist.
With the coming into being of county governments in Kenya, the system of financing lower cadres of the education system can be adopted from Nigeria so that the central government concentrates on the higher levels of education financing.
Bibliography
Abimbola (1993) “Guiding Philosophical perspectives U.M.O Ivowi, (Ed.) Curriculum development in Nigeria, (pp. 4-16) Ibadan: Sam Bookman Educational
And Communication Services.

Zais, R.S. (1976). Curriculum: Principles and foundations. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Inc.

Broudy, H.S. (1971). The philosophical foundations of educational objectives. In M. Levit (Ed.) Curriculum: Reading in philosophy of education. University of Illinois Press.

Adeyinka, A.A. (1992). Book of reading in educational theory and practice in A. Akinyemi, (Ed.) llorin:Institute of Education, University of llorin, llorin, Nigeria

Adeyinka, A.A. & Kolawole D. (1995). History and philosophy of education. Unpublished Manuscript, Available for the Department of Education Foundations University of llorin, llorin, Nigeria.

Abdu, P.S (2003) – “The Cost and Finance of Education in Nigeria “Education Today Quarterly; June, Vol. 10 (1); 12 ??“ 16

Oghenekohwo, J.E. (2004) – “Deregulation Policy and Its Implication of the Funding of the University Education in Nigeria in Journal of Research ion Education, Jan – June Vol 3 (1) Pg 204-224.

Okebukola, P (2003) Issues in Funding University Education in Nigeria. NUC Monograph Series, Abuja, MUC.

Psacharopoulos, G. (1984) The Contribution of Education to Economic Growth International Comparisons in J. Kendrick (ed) International Productivity Comparisons and Cause of the Showdown. Cambridge Mass: Ballenger

Aina, A.T. and A. T. Salau.1992. The challenge of sustainable Development in Nigeria. Nigerian Environment Study/Action Team (NEST). An NGO report prepared for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, June 1-12, p. 8, 16.

World Bank (1994). Higher Education: The Lessons of Experience. Washington D.C: The World Bank.

Online sources

http://www.rti.org/pubs/Financing_Education_Nigeria.pdf accessed on 26th January 2011

http://www.mapsofworld.com/nigeria/education/ accessed on 26th January 2011