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Nigeria ranks as the tenth largest nation in the world, and by far the largest nation in Africa, with an estimated population of 123,337,822 people. Located north of the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, Nigeria is bordered on the east by Cameroon, on the northeast by Chad, on the north by Niger, and on the west by the Republic of Benin. Land features change dramatically in Nigeria, from rain forests…
A nationwide Board of Education was established by the colonial government in 1926. The education departments of Southern and Northern Nigeria were shortly thereafter merged to form a federal Department of Education. Government planning occurred after World War II. The 1946 Ten-Year Development Plan stimulated rapid expansion of schools especially in the south. In 1951 Nigeria was divided into thr…
Nigerian law requires compulsory education for all students between the ages of 6 and 15. Students in primary and secondary school attend three equally divided sessions from January through December, with about a month vacation between sessions. In 1982, Nigeria switched to the American system of six primary, three junior secondary, and three senior secondary school grades, but the rigid examinat…
Most preschools and kindergartens are privately owned, but they must register with the government and follow federal guidelines. They are normally very expensive, so only the wealthy can afford to send their children to preschools and kindergartens. The federal government initiated an Early Childhood Care Development Education (ECCDE) program in the early 1990s, but rapid changes in political even…
Secondary schools are mostly state or federally owned, although in 2001 the federal government began encouraging the return of former church mission schools. The federal government promised to continue paying teacher salaries. Generally, the federal government funds and manages two federal government colleges (secondary schools) in each state. In addition, each state owns and operates secondary sc…
Because there are only enough openings annually for about 20 percent of the qualified applicants, competition for places in higher education is severe. In 1996-1997, for example, 475,923 applied for university places but only 79,904 received offers. Almost 50 percent of those enrolled in higher education go to universities to work on bachelor level degrees. The annual dropout rate for all universi…
At the federal level, two major groups prepare and propose national policy for primary and secondary education: The Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCC) and the National Council on Education (NCE). Drawn from federal and state ministries, university faculty, WAEC, the National Union of Teachers (NUT), and other groups, the JCC considers educational proposals and recommends policy to the…
Nigeria has an illiteracy rate close to 50 percent.
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 i…
The problems in Nigeria's education system stem from a complicated mix of economic, political, and social situations. Three decades of political instability followed civil war in the late 1960s. Economic wealth from huge oil reserves in the southeast were diverted away from education and other socially progressive programs into the pockets of corrupt politicians and military leaders. The fo…
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