Última modificación: 2017-07-16
Resumen
After Nigeria got her independence on 1 October 1960, the general consensus was that there was the need to make education relevant to the needs of the individual and the society at large. In other words, there is the need for educational emancipation through decolonization of the academic contents and this led to the organization of the 1969 Curriculum Conference which had far reaching effects on the curriculum contents, purposes, goals and objectives of education in Nigeria. This paper therefore focuses Nigeria’s 1969 Curriculum Conference as a practical approach to educational emancipation in Nigeria. The conference according to Adaralegbe (1972) was summoned mainly “to review old and identify new national goals for education in Nigeria at all levels (primary, secondary, tertiary) and provide guidelines on what the system should be accomplishing with respect to the needs of youths and adult individuals in our society”. It was rightly observed during the conference by Cookey (1972: xxv) that, “education then tends to produce children who can read and write and pass examinations and which qualify them for employment only as clerks”. The peculiarity of this conference was the calibre of people that participated; they were drawn from all segments of the society to ensure an emergence of concrete education policy - academic institutions at all levels, local governments, various ministries, trade unions, publishing houses among others. In the conceptual framework of globalisation of education, this paper will focus discussion on the historical background of educational development in Nigeria; the role of education in the curriculum emancipation process; why the curriculum conference was organised; the focus of discussion during the conference; the effects of the conference on the educational development of Nigeria and, most importantly the evolution of the National Policy on Education. This study is historical; it therefore employs historical method of data collection through both primary and secondary sources. As the study recommends among others that there is the need for total overhauling of our educational policies and philosophy, it is hoped that the research would sensitise everyone in the society to emphasise the importance of providing and acquiring education that is relevant to the needs of individuals and the society at large.