Nigeria’s 1969 Curriculum Conference: A practical approach to educational emancipation.

Abstract

After Nigeria got her independence on 1 October 1960, the general consensus was that there was the need for educational emancipation through decolonization of the academic contents of education; to make education relevant to the needs of the individual and the society at large. 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. However, what obtains in the education sector today makes it look as if there was no initial proper planning for educational emancipation. This paper, therefore, focuses on Nigeria’s 1969 Curriculum Conference (CC) as a practical approach to educational emancipation in Nigeria. In the conceptual framework of the globalization of education, Cookey’s (1972: xxv) observation during the conference that, “education then tends to produce children who can read and write and pass examinations and which qualify them for employment only as clerks” was an important reason for the conference and is still relevant today as a major issue for discussion in our education outcomes. This study is historical; it, therefore, employs the historical method to collect information and facts needed through both primary and secondary sources. As the study recommends among others that there is the need for total overhauling of Nigerian educational policies and philosophy, it is hoped that the research would sensitize all stakeholders in Nigeria to emphasize the importance of providing a functional educational curriculum relevant to the needs of individuals and the society at large.

Keywords: Curriculum Conference, Emancipation, National Policy on Education, Decolonization

Akanbi, G. O. & Abiolu, O. A. (2018). Nigeria’s 1969 Curriculum Conference: A practical approach to educational emancipation. Education History Notebooks    17(2), 479-490. (A Publication of the Federal University of Uberlandia, Brazil. http://www.seer.ufu.br/index.php/che/)

Paper presented at the 39^th Session of International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE), University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.