ABSTRACT
Nigeria
is at the· cross road of her developmental stage and therefore needs a decisive
action to liberate her from the danger of total collapse in the face of
political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental, ecological, and religious
and communication problems. It has been repeatedly said that no nation can rise
above her education and Nigeria is not an exception. The method of education
adopted by any country speaks volumes as to how far the country would go in
solving her domestic or internal problems and her relationship with other
people especially her external neighbours and that is why this study seeks to
explore the relationship between COIPC and manpower development in Nigeria.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Nigeria
needs a better educational system than what she has at present. There is no
gain saying the fact that authenticity has eluded us both individually and
collectively as a people. Our environment is polluted with artificiality. We
ignore nature’s gifts within and around us in preference to synthetic
existence. We prefer to copy the work and life of other people regardless of
our own background, nature and nurture. We thrive in sacrificing authenticity
at the alter of conventionality. Because of these misgivings and
misconceptions, we have persistently witnessed in our societies and communities’
cultural upheavals and disenchantment, political and democratic imbalances,
socio-economic disequilibrium and academic backwardness. All these individual,
social lives and values are immersed in the deep see of deception. The position
we find ourselves and the state of affairs of the nation is filled in utter
confusion. It has been severally said that the life of any nation depends on
the type of education it has. Apparently, no one seems to have any correct
answers to the multifarious problems facing the country’s education system. The
government is handicapped in finding a lasting solution to the nation’s
education problems instead it is contented with the policy of remediation
Lack
of authentic education has been the bane of Nigeria’s existence from cradle:
There are numerous cases of in authenticity in our society.
There
are cases of many schooled persons who are yet to be educated. Engineers who cannot
fix their cars’ engine problems instead they will be looking for road side
mechanics to do it for them. There elites in our society who have acquired the
white man’s education based on theory alone without practical application of
the technical know-how or depth knowledge and experience of the discipline they
have undertaken. This accounts for the reason why we have many lettered but
uneducated people certificated but not certified graduates who roam the streets
of our urban cities in search of the scarce white-collar jobs instead of being
able to generate or create job opportunities for themselves and the less
privileged members of the society. What then is the value of education if it
lacks authenticity? Where and how does one evaluate such education which does not
help its possessor to become self-actualized, self-realized and self-fulfilled?
Does the holy book not say that the supremacy of knowledge /wisdom is that it
helps the owner to live? Wisdom keeps you safe; this is the advantage of
wisdom. Thus the value of good education is reflected in the usefulness of such
education in making one self-reliant, self-realized, self-actualized and self-
fulfilled.
Though
many educationists and authors have written so much on the educational problems
of Nigeria and have equally proffered various solutions both workable and
unworkable to the problems, the very Ref. Fr. Prof. Stan Anih has distinguished
himself as an author par excellence by his many education theories and
write-ups. He has dealt in details about authentic education and what Nigeria
ought to be in the third millennium. He has written about the qualities a
potential teacher should possess in order to achieve his objectives in the
classroom. He has written about the need to teach philosophy from,
kindergarten, preprimary, primary, secondary and to the tertiary institutions m
order to authenticate education in Nigeria. He has equally dealt with the
problems facing the teachers both individually and collectively in their
teaching profession which he captioned “The anatomy of a professional
teacher”. In fact, very Rev. Prof. Stan Anih has synthesized many
issues concerning functional and innovative approach to education. These
syntheses of very rev Fr. Prof. Stan Anih is what this study is set to review
and to point out how and where they could be used in tackling Nigeria’s
education problems. Nigeria is at the· cross roads of her developmental stage
and therefore needs a decisive action to liberate her from the danger of total
collapse in the face of political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental,
ecological, and religious and communication problems. It has been repeatedly
said that no nation can rise above her education and Nigeria is not an
exception. The method of education adopted by any country speaks volumes as to
how far the country would go in solving her domestic or internal problems and
her relationship with other people especially her external neighbours.
Each
country has problems and needs that are peculiar to her and her environment and
as such need to construct her education philosophy with regards to her needs.
Education in Nigeria is an instrument par excellence for effecting national
development (N.P.E. 2004:4). It has witnessed active participation by
individuals, communities, non-governmental agencies as well as government
intervention. It is therefore desirable for the nation to spell out in clear
and unequivocal terms the philosophy and objectives that underlines its
investment in education. The Federal Government of Nigeria has stated that for
the benefit of all citizens the country’s educational goals shall be clearly
set out in terms of their relevance to the needs of the individuals and those
of the society in consonance with the realities of our environment and modern
world (ibid).
Unfortunately,
Nigeria’s education system is still in the woods courtesy of strict adherence
to the conventional pedagogical method of education which she received from her
erstwhile British colonial master which does not consider the implications of
such education philosophy to Nigeria’s political, socio-cultural, economic,
environmental and ecological needs.
The
pedagogical method of education is devoid of reasonableness because the British
came to Nigeria and other African colonial dependences not to develop them but
to saturate their economic and political ambitions and so their educational
objectives are based on how to maximize their profit and expand their
territorial ambition. They introduced to the colonies the type of education
that ensured their continuous domination of those colonies which emphasizes
basically the “3Rs” – Reading;’ writing and Arithmetic through which
they produced those who could read their letters or directives (Anih,s ; Igwe,
S. and Igwe, C. 2004: 110). This method of education is devoid of the
41h R reasonableness which is the missing link in our education system. Since
the system does not teach reasonableness, it does not possess the capacity to
empower the citizens towards self – actualization, self fulfillment and
self – emancipation. The system was only able to produce local teachers,
catechists, interpreters, clerks and other minor workers, who have no
capability to play any leadership role in economic cum socio-political arena of
their countries. The colonial masters tended to cling to these leadership roles
perpetually while keeping the citizens of the colonies in perpetual bondage of
servitude. It then became true that no education philosophy could appropriately
address the problems of a country than the one made for her by her own citizens
because it is one who wears the shoe that knows where it pinches him. It is
pertinent at this juncture to state that we know our problems better and should
solve them better with our own indigenous, resources.
The
educational objectives of Nigeria in the 21st century differ completely from
that of Britain of the 18th century. There is a big gulf of difference in
the spatio-temporal perspectives of the two countries and so educational
philosophy planned by the British and for the British interests in the
18thcentury cannot be used to solve Nigeria’s problems in the 21st century. The
major alms of the British venture into Nigeria were for politico-economic
interests to ensure steady supply of raw materials to their industries back
home and not to train the indigenous people of Nigeria. They worked for gain
and not for grace.
Thus,
it can be said free of any equivocation that the system of education which the
British people bequeathed to Nigeria was completely pedagogical in practice,
dehumanizing and depersonalizing in intent and slavish in execution. Any
education system based on pedagogy emphasizes competition instead of
cooperation, me ism instead of we hood, egoism and monocracy instead of
democracy. The education policy formulated by the pedagogists always paid lips
service to the teaching of reflective, critical and creative thinking even as
enshrined in the national policy on education 1981 (revised 1998 and 2004)
respectively. When we examine the in-put and out-put of the nation’s education
system, we shall see how far we have performed woefully below expectations
‘because of misapplication of priorities which is associated with the
pedagogical stance of education. The Nigerian education system has failed to achieve
the broad goals of education as mapped out in the national education policy.
1.2 Significance of the Study
The
claim of philosophy connection with academic education is based upon the
assumption that philosophy can change students’ critical status (such as
surprising, demanding standard…) and train them with reasoning, conception
forming, changing, and investigating skills. Philosophy in school, on the one
hand, is a progressive discussion about our future educational system so that
it can provide safe training about how philosophy can be performed and mixed in
school classes and auditoriums. Therefore, philosophy for children explains
that how each teacher in each subject is able to accept a model of
philosophical search and adapt it to the class situation. Philosophy is much
better understood if considered as a public activity and a conversation
according to what Socrates did, than just considered as an education subject
which should be inserted in child’s memory. On the other hand, philosophical
opening, questioning, and surprising toward the word—the characteristics which
are undeniable, admirable, and comprehensive—can be remained superficial and
even bare. Unless, it founts from Socrates’ dialectic insight: “I know that I
don’t know.” Philosophy for children is a program which involves them in every
class discussion in the field of philosophical subjects. The aim of this
program is the improvement of children though via introducing them numerous
“Big Question” and enables them in considering these questions. Using this
program, teachers encourage children to think more deeply on ideas about their
schoolwork. This strategy mainly takes place in project community of classes.
Children will deeply concentrate on their thoughts and skill and then improve
them while considering and reinforcing their own and others’ ideas in response
to philosophical puzzles. This article aims to reply the following questions:
What is philosophy for children? What aims does it follow? What is its content?
What skills does it consider? How does it compose with the current educational
programming? What strategies does this curriculum follow?
It
is common knowledge that most of our secondary school leavers do not possess
the ability and skills to reason well, they do not respect the dignity of
labour, all they live and hope for IS to pass their final examinations through
cheat and “expo 419”. They like the school administrators target only
the end result. They are not interested in the means by which they achieve
those results. The values and norms of honest living have eluded those children
from the beginning and so, how would they be expected to live honest lives
after they had been schooled and graduated in dishonesty. That is why in our
political lives, we exhibit bitterness, rancor and turgery. The school
curriculum is prepared and delivered in such a way that the children are not
invited to think. They are expected to reproduce exactly what the teachers had
given them thereby encouraging laziness among the pupils/ students hence there
is acute lack of creativity. The pedagogical method of education has dealt a
great havoc to our education system. As a result, we have the problems of
cultism in the secondary ‘Schools and tertiary institutions to contend with.
The students vandalize school properties, kill and main their fellow students
and teachers; they are threat to themselves and the society in which they live
and above all they have been performing woefully in their academic out-put
generally. Anih, S. (2004: 109) states that negligence of reason results in the
loss of everything. He emphasized the need for redesigning of Nigeria’s education
philosophy. We need an authentic philosophy of education to solve national
problems in Nigeria.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
When
starting this research, we wanted to explore three main questions:
(a) investigate and explore the earliest level of
the application of the COI P4C program for the development of manpower.
(b)
to explore if the available material is
sufficient for practicing P4C sessions; and whether the teachers could handle
it properly.
(c)
The last, but not least, hypothesis we wanted to explore was whether we would
find evidence that P4C helps develop children’s critical thinking skills.
1.4 Research Questions
I.
What is the earliest level for the
application the COI program?
II.
Is there available and sufficient
material to practice COI for development?
III.
Does COI P4C helps in the development on
manpower and thinking ability?