No nation can develop beyond its educational standard or level. Thus, education is seen as a catalyst for socio-economic and political development of a nation. The success of many nations in tackling major developmental problems such as poverty, unemployment, inequality among others can only be traced to their educational system. One of the developmental problems in Nigeria is the increasing rate of poverty in the country. Despite various policies and strategies of government, and other stakeholders in alleviating this problem, very little has been achieved, as the poverty rate continue to grow higher. Therefore, this paper examines Ukeje's philosophy on Education. The paper posits that effective and functional education in Nigeria remains the most fundamental vehicle for the overall development of Nigeria as a nation.
INTRODUCTION
Education may mean many things to many people namely, as a discipline, as a process and as a product. Aristotle presented man as a rational animal, meaning that reason is the guiding force in human nature. Educationally, John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) contended that the nature or essence of a thing is its end or purpose, rather than its actuality any given moment; that the seeds of knowledge of virtue and of piety are naturally implanted in us, but that the actual knowledge, virtue and piety are not so given. To Alfred North Whitehead (1948), education is not just the acquisition of knowledge but the acquisition of the art of the utilization knowledge. Going by all this views therefore, it will be right to say that education is power, it is the process of acquiring knowledge and ideas that shape and condition mans attitudes, actions and achievements; it is a process of developing the childs moral, physical, emotional and intellectual powers for his contribution in social reform; it is the process of mastering the laws of nature and for utilizing them effectively for the welfare of the individual and for social reconstruction; it is the art of the utilization of knowledge for complete living.
ETYMOLOGICAL MEANING OF EDUCATION
The term Education was been derived from two Latin words “Educare” (Educere) and Educatum. Educare means to train or mold. It again means to bring up or to lead out or to draw out, propulsion from inward to outward. The term Educatum denotes the act of teaching. It throws light on the principles and practice of teaching. The term Educare or Educere mainly indicates development of the latent faculties of the child. But child does not know these possibilities. It is the educator or the teacher who can know these and take appropriate methods to develop those powers. Thus, education may be defined as a purposive, conscious or unconscious, psychological, sociological, scientific and philosophical process, which brings about the development of the individual to the fullest extent and also the maximum development of society in such a way that both enjoy maximum happiness and prosperity. In Short, education is the development of individual according to his needs and demands of society, of which he is an integral part.
It is known that "Education is the greatest power which mankind has created (greater than the power of the atom), either for his ultimate destruction or for his continued survival and progress". Much depends on the kind of education provided, why it is provided, how it is provided, who provides it and to whom it is provided.
For the purpose of accuracy and clarity, Ukeje's notion of Education is based on a number of premises:
That education can and should perform a social function.
That the role of education is based upon the purpose of any society.
That not every form of education can perform a positive social function.
ABOUT UKESJE
Mathematician, teacher, excellent administrator, and great optimist. Bennett Onyerisara Ukeje was born on April 22, 1929 at Isulo in present day Orumba-South Local Government Area of Anambra State. He attended several primary schools as a result to the constant transfer of his guardian headmaster, in 1941 he was admitted into New Bethel College, Onitsha, which was founded by his uncle, Chief M.C. Awgu and on successful completion in 1946, he was offered a teaching assistantship there, between January 1947 and August 1948, to teach Mathematics.
In 1949, he proceeded to the United States of America for higher education, attending such Universities as Ohio and Columbia Teachers College and earning during the period a B.Sc (Ed) degree in Mathematics in1952 from the former and an M.A. and Ed.D. in 1955 and 1957 respectively from the later. On his return from the United States he was appointed Principal of New Bethel College between 1957 and 1961. In 1961, he joined the Faculty of Education of the University of Nigeria and became Professor in 1974. During his stay at the university, he served as Head of Department and Dean of the faculty of Education. When the Advanced Teacher's training college (ATTC), Owerri, was to be upgraded to the status of a college of Education in 1974, he was appointed its provost thus making him the first Provost of Alvan i koku College of Education. He returned to Nsukka after a three years term at Alvan but only for a brief spell of three months as he was again mandated in 1977, to establish another College of Education at awka by the new Government of Anambra State following its Creation in 1976. In 1984, he returned to University teaching and administration at the University of Port Harcourt for his sabbatical leave and was retained until 1958. Throughout his stay at the University, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Education.
Onyerisara Ukeje who has served as Chairman to the National Commission for Colleges of Education is a fellow of several academic associations, namely: Commonwealth council for Educational Administration (F.C.C.E.A.): international institute of Community Service (F.N.A.E.); International Biographical Association (F.I.B.A.) and; Nigerian Academy of Education (F.N.A.E.) which he has served as Secretary and is currently its President. He is presently with the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja.
Ukeje provides a clear context for his ideas. He is through and through a social reconstructionist and hardly does one read any of his works without noticing how an aspect of that philosophy is being clarified or expounded. Indeed, his most important contribution to educational theory comes under that title Education for Social Reconstruction (1966). Others are: Pedagogical Problems in Nigeria Today (1975); and School and Society in Nigeria (1986). In 1983, a symposium was organized at the Anambra State College of Education, Awka, to commemorate his twenty-five years of meritorious service to education in Nigeria which was due in 1982. The outcome is a book titled Education for the Reconstruction of Nigerian Society (1993).
UKEJE'S CONCEPTION OF THE NIGERIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Reconstructionist in general rejects the concept of universals or abstract metaphysical ideas and takes keen interest in those conditions that affect man's existence. ultimately, reconstrionist are concerned with political, Social and economic issues, for these are what affect individuals and groups. Ukeje had shown no concern for abstract theories of reality, pucks as his take-point those circumstances that have brought Nigeria to its present state of decay and calling for an urgent reconstruction as such problems are arising from nothing different than what we had in the past
In the book "Education for Social Reconstruction", Ukeje outlined that the aims and purposes of education in an Era of Transition should include:
"Education for Cultural Change, Education for Social Integration, Education for Rural Regeneration, Education for Social Philosophy, Education for Self-Government, Education for Political Efficiency, Education for the Creation of Modern men, Education for the Development of Individual Excellence, Education for the Fullest Development of the Potentialities of the Individual, Education for the Development of Manpower Resources, Education for Civic Responsibility, Education for the Improvement of Socio-Economic Conditions, Education for Vocational Efficiency and Education for Citizenship and Social Efficiency". These are still valid needs for Education in Nigeria.1
According to Ukeje, the problem of Nigeria is not that of structures or systems, nor they political or economic, but that of the quality of the human operators. In politics, “the West Minister model of Parliamentary Democracy has failed in Nigeria so also has the American model of Presidential Democracy. Even a limited experiment of Socialism in Ayetoro has also failed”.2 Also our present economic system which is labelled Mixed Economy has woefully failed said Ukeje. “These structures and systems have failed in Nigeria not because of their imperfections; after all they have all succeeded elsewhere, but because of the Nigerian misoperators”.3 So, whether we adopt Monarchy, Diarchy, or Triarchy, Capitalism, Socialism, or any other ism; it will equally fail in Nigeria unless we did the first thing first. That first thing is the purification of the Nigerian operators.
The fact is that culturally and ideologically we in Nigeria have been dangling between two worlds said Ukeje. We have become like a proverbial bat. Culturally, the foundation for the old has been shaken very seriously and the new has not yet taken deep root. Thus, we are in a state of cultural confusion. Ideologically, we are equally dangling between the east and the west, trying to hang on an unrationalized and confused mixture between the two. Hence no existing economic theory has thus far been efficacious in the solution of the Nigerian problems. “To us the battle for national survival should start with the battle for the mind, with a clear idea of what we are, what we want and where we are going. The battle for the mind, of course, cuts across cultural, ideological and educational frontiers”.4 Education is, of course, the greatest weapon for the battle regardless of the frontier. Our greatest problem in Nigeria is the absence of an acceptable national ideology; that is, a motivating force, a frame of reference, a conceptualizing design and a basis for choice. Nigeria is a nation in which nothing works largely because of the attitude of most Nigerians which is a reflection of the absence of an acceptable ideology.
Every human society has its own system of values, ethics and ideals; a system of Dos and Donts which has been borne out of experience and which has largely been motivated by the need to survive. Our problem in Nigeria today is that our indigenous value systems have been eroded and destroyed through years of colonization and perhaps buried through 30 months of an agonizing civil strife. The alien value systems which have emerged are mostly irrelevant to our culture, needs, environment and circumstances. Thus we have found ourselves dangling between the cultures. The old has been discarded and the new is ill understood, irrelevant and incongruous. The need here is to rediscover our ideological roots and value systems and have them systematized, modernized and codified through the process of education. The starting point is, of course, to decide on what future we want. This seems to have been achieved already in the five National objectives of Nigeria which have been quoted above.
We have had almost unparalleled political instability since independence in 1960, and our economy is nothing to write home about. Since the introduction of U.P.E in September 1976, Nigeria has set in motion a devastating crisis of supply and demand in the educational system. Since then everything connected with proper education, apart from the pupils themselves, has been in short supply. Classrooms have been in short supply, teaching materials and equipment have been in short supply; qualified teachers have been in short supply. Vacancies for teaching positions exist in most of the states, qualified teachers are being turned out of training institutions in their thousands, but they are not being employed because the states cannot pay their salaries. Thus schools exist without the necessary human and material resources; qualified teachers remain unemployed. With the present state of affairs what we are having is, at best, mass schooling. 5
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
synonymous with education; and mass schooling is not mass education. Hence, education for all is fast becoming education for none. Quantitatively, we have clearly achieved tremendous success in our educational endeavour. What we need now and in the near future and for the survival of the nation is quality education. In our educational development, it is to be noted that mass formal education followed rather than preceded the transition from agricultural to industrially based economy, millions of people from among the educated class are unemployed, while millions of jobs are waiting to be done because people with the right education, training and skills cannot be found. In a developing country like Nigeria, educational expansion should not be carried out for its own sake. The expansion must be carefully planned and geared to meet the relevant needs of the society. Examination of development plans of nations of the world reveals that there are five main categories of rationale for educational financing.
These are:
manpower development
social equity
nation building
improving quality of schooling
improving efficiency of schooling
EDUCATION AND SELF-RELIENCE
With developmentalism, education becomes now an instrument with which we could become masters, not slaves of our environment and culture. To succeed in the present technological world, Nigeria, as a nation, must be self-reliant; the various Nigerian States, political or geographical units must be self-reliant; the government parastatals, institutions and agencies must be self-reliant; the Nigerian communities must be self-reliant; and the individual Nigerians must be self-reliant.
By self-reliance, Ukeje mean the rights, the necessity, the freedom, the capacity and the resolve of a people to define, articulate the struggle to achieve their own goals of individual, community and national development through their indigenous efforts, indigenous institutions, and programs designed and operated by the people themselves. Thus, self-reliance is a process, not a state. It is, in fact, an ideology. It is committed to the transformation of economic, social political, cultural and particularly intellectual structures, and to growth with development. Self-reliance is not necessarily self-efficiency; it calls for absence of dependence and not absence of inter-dependence. It implies revolutionary transformation, or revolutionary modernization which also implies technological revolution. 6 In terms of technology, self-reliance implies that we produce what we use and use what we produce; and in terms of food it means we produce what we eat and eat what we produce, it is in short, a search for real independence. To be self-reliant, what Nigerians need is chance, not handouts. Education is the prime instrument for the achievement of self-reliance.
Education for self-reliance must develop positive self-concept in every child. As a result of positive socialization in the school, the child should develop a self-structure of himself which should consist of a set of attitudes towards, or beliefs about, ones own needs, goals, abilities, feelings and values. Self-concept or self-structure is developed through teaching appropriate school experiences and interjection.
EDUCATION FOR A DISCIPLINED SOCIETY
Nigeria is a country in which nothing works. Nothing works in Nigeria largely because most Nigerians are indiscipline. But education is change in behaviour; the proper conduct is disciplined behaviour; and education is the means to proper conduct. To Ukeje, Nigeria is a country where people cheat and dupe the government out of millions of Naira, then take chieftaincy titles and later turn around to donate some millions to the same government and then receive encomiums and accolades from the same government and people”. Nigerians are experts at devising means to circumvent any government measure for the greater good of the greater number. Indeed, indiscipline is about the greatest problem facing Nigeria today as a developing nation. Nigerians have become so indiscipline that the Buhari/Idiagbon regime found it necessary to declare a War Against Indiscipline. To be sure, the scheme has (or had) achieved a measure of success, at least with regard to queuing culture, but it has thus far been an outward conformity to rules and regulations without the development of the necessary inner control of behaviour without which there will be no continuity once the external forces have been removed”. Good education develops good and disciplined citizens. And by a good citizen, we mean;
Somebody who understands and appreciates his rights, performs his duties and responsibilities as a member of the society and community.
Somebody who behaves in accordance with the acceptable and positive norms and standards of behaviour in his society.
Somebody who upholds the laws of the land and abides by sound moral principles including honesty, integrity, probity, loyalty, and dependability.
Somebody who has acquired some useful and functional knowledge and skills.
Somebody who is self-reliant and productive; that is, somebody who is not a parasite either to his family or to the society and who has respect for the dignity of labour.
Somebody who is disciplinedthat is who manifests the proper conduct and behavior.
EDUCATION AND THE NATIONAL PROBLEMS
In a diverse society such as ours it is impossible to deny any substantial section of the country, for too long. Equal access to any social amenities and hope to maintain peace, unity and stability. Therefore, Ukeje (1994) explains that there is need for equality and equity under diversity. Therefore, the way to solve the Nigerian National problems is to abolish political, economic, geographical and ethnic diversities by the creation of one Nigerian citizenship. That is whereby every Nigerian is, he is a Nigerian citizen with all the full citizenship rights wherever and whenever he resides in any place continuously for duration of.
In the context of the national problem, education would then be an instrument for national integration and cultural change. Any norm of geographical inequities and inequalities should be removed through the equalization of educational opportunities whereby at last primary education should be equally available and tuition free every Nigerian child in the remotest part of the country. Here, equity should not be confused with equality and equal access should not be confused with uniform access. Equity demands that no individuals or groups or people are disadvantaged through official policies and practices in their quest for advancement.6
POOR QUALITY OF TEACHERS
To Ukeje (1992) the low quality of teachers constitutes a serious problem in the quest for social reconstruction. The teacher, to Ukeje, is the builder of tomorrow; he effects eternity and nobody can forecast how far his effect can reach. To build a great, peaceful, democratic and prosperous tomorrow, he must be great, he must be well educated and he must be devoted.
Teaching is an occupation in which professional education and training is indispensable. And teaching is a profession in which priority is placed on service as opposed to personal gain; it is dedicated to the extension of knowledge; it is a life career; and its practices are to be based on clearly defined ethical principles. Perhaps the major problem in Nigeria today is the professionalization of teaching. Perhaps owing to economic factors, even some of the governments of the Federation employ non-professional teachers or ill-prepared teachers in preference to fully qualified professionals. Some still hold to the old but now discarded notion that teaching is more than doing. Teaching is more than just the impartation of knowledge. It is a process for human development and change in behaviour. It is a complex process involving such related activities as: Indeed, the important thing in teaching is not willingness and ability to keep order in the classroom, but ability to teach and inspire rather than to cheat, because it is truly said that:
"A poor teacher cheats. A mediocre teacher tells. An average teacher informs. A good teacher teaches. An excellent teacher inspires".7
We need in Nigeria, at all levels of the educational ladder and for the purpose of national survival, great and excellent teachers who can inspire our youth to noble heights and noble deeds and inspire confidence in the teaching profession because when teaching becomes dry and too mechanical, such will limit students grasp of content and consequent application.
THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION CONTROL
Nigeria, he suggests, should copy the American example of setting aside one period a week, for pupils to go to their places of worship for religious instruction and reject the argument that religious bodies are best suited for inculcating skill and devotion or teaching which should be a way of life and instilling of moral character. But whether or not these qualities belong to the missionary educationist in a special sense is, to him, an open question. "Skill and devotion, are professional qualities not always dependent on religious preference, or the monopoly of a special group," is his rejection of the first claim. As to the second, he argues that although the Christian Mission's role in Nigeria's development cannot be ignored, their day is well-nigh over and being invariably foreign, they cannot hold any claim to being the best transmitter of a way of life as this has to do with the Culture of the people concerned. Education of this sort can best be undertaken by the people themselves, he contends" Ukeje (1986). The grounds for rejecting religious control of education are. As long as social reconstruction requires adequate understanding of past and present forces, it Is the people of a given culture who can best effect it and since education is tied up with the culture of those who acquire it, members of the given culture are its best custodians. Religious bodies, with their roots lying elsewhere. Ukeje had used the relationship between education and culture to reject the control of education by religious and foreign bodies.
EDUCATION OF WOMEN
If the group mind is both end and means to the reconstructionists, then the need to fully develop all individual minds is a necessity. Maximum social reconstruction becomes possible when all individuals are made effective contributors in designing ends and means and where only a section is educated, the level and pace of reconstruction is affected. Social reconstructionists are implicitly, strong advocates of equal opportunities in education as the achieving the best possible group mind. It is for this reason that Ukeje (1986) sees the low regard attached to women education as constituting a defect in the education system. Basing his reasons on the controlling influence of women in society, he argues that “the successful introduction of any innovation will be hampered directly and in proportion to the extent in which women are educated. Women education promotes a shared responsibility for the training of children and for social most effective way of improvement," he argues. It cannot be relegated or ignored.8
EDUCATION FOR NATIONAL UNITY
According to Ukeje (1975), in an attempt to implement the Constitution in order to ensure equity for some, inequity has, perhaps, unwittingly, been created for others. This is so because the attempt to implement the concept of Federal Character has led to the institution of quota system in admission into Federal Government educational institutions. This has inevitably led to differential and discriminatory cut-off pints for Federal Secondary School and University admissions. For instance, for the Federal Secondary School admission there have been cases where two pupils in one school, one with a score of say 255 got admitted while the other with a score of 298 failed to gain admission simply because of geopolitical considerations.
Naturally, the pupil with 298 score who failed to gain admission must feel alienated. The same thing happens with University admission. Cases abound where students with JAMB scores of as low as 220 got admitted into a course in a University, while other with scores as high as 260 fail to be admitted into the same course and at the same University. Certainly these practices breed alienation, destroy patriotism and endanger national unity.
These practices are justified on the concept that certain states are considered to be educationally advantaged while others are considered to be educationally disadvantaged. Consider for instance two pupils one born and raised in Kano City and the other born and raised at Ikwo in Anambra State. According to the present practice the pupil from Ikwo is classified as coming from educationally advantaged state while the pupil from Kano is classified as coming from an Educationally Disadvantaged state. "But in actual fact the pupil from Kano City has come from a more advantaged educational environment than the pupil from Ikwo who came from a school with perhaps no chairs, no writing materials and no qualified teachers". Consider again, the case of two boys, both children of two professors in a University. Both boys were born and bred on the same campus and they attended the same University Demonstration School. If one of the professors has come from one of the so-called advantaged states and the other from the so-called disadvantaged states, then the two children with the same environment and experience would be classified differently and judged differently interms of admission into Federal Government Institutions! Perhaps we should be talking about disadvantaged areas not states.9
CONCLUSION
Nigeria is a nation in which nothing works and Chinua Achebe (1983) has also written that “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. And he further stated that “Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentations, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth.10 But the former Head of State Buhari once reminded us that we have no other country we can call our own. We must therefore all work together to salvage Nigeria also, to Ukeje, Without good teachers we cannot have good education, and without good education, we cannot meet successfully the challenges of the ever changing Nigerian world. in short, without good teachers and good education we cannot achieve satisfactory national development".11
Aware that the best Nigeria can offer can never be achieved by any majority in absolute negation of the minority's views. The reconstructionist position for social self-realization in politics and all aspect is that which will go a long way in solving some of the social problems that we are facing today. While the majority decisions must inexorably become public policy, minority rights to provide inclusive views should not be disregarded. This suggests that in the end, tolerance is expected from both majority and minority groups. From the former, to permit the other the freedom of expression of opinion, and from the latter the need to implement the views of the majority. In all, what Ukeje advocates for is political tolerance, that is, "the development of enlightened attitudes towards political deviationists", or the expression of different Views rather than ruthlessness, maliciousness, victimization, and vandalism.
END NOTES
Federal Republic of Nigeria. National Policy on Education (1981). NERC Press.
HANSON, John and BREMBECK, Cole (ed) Education and the Development Of Nations, New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.
IKOKU, Emman Ume Global Response to African Venture in Self-reliance. Free University, Economic Faculty, Amsterdam, 1977.
LOWE, J et al (Eds.) Education and Nation-Building in The Third World. Barnes & Noble, Inc. 1971.
OLIVERO, James L. Micro-Teaching: Medium for Improving Instruction, Ohio: Charles Merill Publishing Company, 1970.
RAZIK, Taher A. Systems Approach to Teacher Training and Curriculum Development: The Case of Developing Countries: Unesco, IIEP, 1972.
UKEJE, B. O. Education for Social Reconstruction: McMillan Publishers, 1966.
UKEJE, B. O. Pedagogical Problems in Nigeria Today” Presence African. New Bilingual Series No. 95, 3rd Quarterly 1975.
UKEJE, B. O. Education For Self-Reliance, A Paper Presented at Senior Executive Course at the Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State, March 20, 1986.
UKEJE, B. O. School and Society. Enugu Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1986.
Ukeje, B.O (1992). In Ukeje B.O (1994) Educational Administration. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers.