The Transmission of the Nigerian Culture Through Education at the Primary School Level, 1960 Till Date

Since Education is the transmission of Culture, the study examined the transmission of the Nigerian culture through Education at the primary school level, since 1960, the year of Nigerian’s independence, till date. Historical research method was adopted for the study and data were analyzed using primary sources like; oral interviews and archival materials, while publications like; textbooks, articles in journals, file document, speeches and workshop papers were used as secondary sources. The focuses of the paper are to define culture, analyze the relationship between culture and education, examine the primary school curriculum in Nigeria, trace the transmission processes of the Nigerian culture through primary education, consider few challenges of primary education in the promotion of Nigerian culture and offer suggestions to improve the role of primary education in Nigeria in this regards. The findings revealed that, the western education introduced by the British colonial masters, was patterned after European culture for promotion of their educational philosophies and missionary activities. Subjects like: Latin, English language, Religious studies, simple Arithmetic, artisans and others were included in the earlier curriculum for the benefit of the European economic, social, religious and political ambitions. As Nigerians agitated for independence, unity and freedom, the educational policies began to change to meeting the local needs of Nigerians at all levels of education. The Phelps-Stokes Commission report of 1922 exposed the inadequacies of educational curriculum used in the Nigerian schools, as not meeting the needs of the people. The 1969 Curriculum conference however, brought a complete revolution to the primary school education in the areas of relevance. For instance, subject like: Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo which were major Nigerian languages, Civic Education and Fine Arts were introduced into the primary school curriculum so as to create in-depth awareness for cultural transmission. The roles of such educational bodies like: NERDC and CESAC were fully discussed in the paper. Policies like: Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Basic Education (UBE) introduced in 1976 and 2004 respectively, were efforts of the government at transforming primary education through culture. Challenges like: inadequate funding, personnel problem and implementation problem were indentified. It is therefore recommended that adequate funding be allocated and made available as well as employment of sufficient qualified personnel. There should be strong political will to make policies effective and people’s interest should be carried along in policies formulations and implementations.