Introduction
Education is a systematic process through which a child or an adult acquires knowledge, experience, skill
and sound attitude. It makes an individual civilized, refined, cultured and educated. For a civilized and
socialized society, education is the only means. Its goal is to make an individual perfect. Every society
gives importance to education because it is a panacea for all evils. It is the key to solve the various
problems of life.
The aims and objectives of Education include individual as well as social aims, with emphasis of social
transformation aiming at reconstructing society to make it modernized, productive, participative, and
value oriented nation committed to its constitutional obligations.The main purpose of education is to
provide the opportunity for acquiring knowledge and skills that will enable people to develop their full
potential, and become successful members of society. School does not just involve letters and numbers,
but also teachers and the entire education system where students are taught critical thinking, honesty,
and humanitarianism. These are invaluable lessons that stay with a person throughout their life.
Meaning of traditional education
Traditional education is a type of education that has to do with norms, beliefs, values and cultural
practices of a group of people in an environment. It is a life-long process aimed at developing a leaner
with functional skills that will help him/her earn a living and be a good citizen of the society. It is aimed
to developing a learner with functional skills that will enable him earn a living and pursue his needs and
self-expression.
Attempts to give definition to traditional education in the past included those of Cameroon & Dodd
(1970) who defined traditional /indigenous education as a lifelong process of learning whereby a person
progressed through predetermined stages of life of graduation from cradle to grave. That is, continuous
education throughout lifetime from childhood to old-age, from womb to tomb. Mushi (2009) defines
indigenous education as a process of passing among the tribal members and from one generation to
another the inherited knowledge, skills, cultural traditions, norms and values of the tribe. In other
words, the form of learning in African traditional societies in which knowledge, skills, and attitudes of
the tribe, were passed from elders to children, by means of oral instructions and practical activities.
Traditional method of teaching is more of teacher-centred which focuses on rote learning and
memorization which are associated with elements of coercion like the use of corporal punishment to
maintain classroom discipline or punish errors, inculcating the dominant religion and language,
separating students according to gender, race, and social class, as well as teaching different subjects to
girls and boys.
Goals and Objectives of Traditional Education in Nigeria
According to Fafunwa (1974), the goals and objectives of traditional African education are:
To develop a learner’s/Child physical skills
To develop the children’s character
To inculcate respect for elders and those in position of authority
To develop intellectual skills
To acquire specific vocational training and develop a healthy attitude towards honesty and integrity in
labour
To develop a sense of belonging and to participate in activities in family and community affairs.
To understand, appreciate and promote the cultural heritage of the community at large.
Characteristics of Traditional Education
1.It was community oriented, geared to solving the problems of the community. The instructional
activities were therefore, directed towards the social life of the community, so as to prepare the
learners to fit into their community.
2.It was taught in relation to a concrete situation. The boys and girls learnt about bird that were
harmful, how they could be controlled, and which birds could be eaten. In the same way, they learnt
about trees that were good for firewood, building or for propping crops like banana and yams as well as
those which resisted ants.
3.The education is a collective or communal social activity. In other words, almost everybody is involved
in the training of the child.
4.It is multi-dimensional in characteristics and goals.
5.It is planned in gradual and progressive steps in order to achieve conformity with the successive stages
of physical, emotional and mental development of the child.
6.The education relies more on informal instruction.
7.It has limited specialized training.
8.The education depends so much on oral tradition.
9.Traditional education is practical and geared towards specific situations.
10.Religion, ethics and education are inextricably related. They are interwoven and inseparable.
11.The education is basically conservative and opposed to change.
12.The education can take place at any time and place.
13.Traditional education is a lifelong process.
Some Strengths of Traditional Education to its Recipients and the Society at Large
Every member of the community was employed. Children learnt the skills that prepared them to
immediately utilize their physical environment for self-employment. The skills acquired by watching, and
imitating the elders were immediately put into practical use.
It was successful in maintaining the socio-economic and cultural structures of the society. The learners
were taught among other things, to preserve their own culture and to get rid of external influences. Also
the skills like masonry, clay working, carving, cloth making, building, canoe making and tinsmith, were
taught in the view of maintaining the socio-economic and cultural heritage of the society.
The learners/recipients acquired communal attitudes rather than individual. Thus learners were taught
to respect the proprieties of the whole society, and they used their acquired knowledge for service of
the society.
Challenges of Traditional/Indigenous African Education
It was confined to a particular clan or society and covered that aspect considered being of immediate
relevance to them and did not go beyond the borders of the society. In other words, it had a specific
body of knowledge to be learnt which never changed and which concentrated only on the transmission
of cultural heritage, i.e. of traditions, values, and norms among the members of the tribe from childhood
to adulthood.
1. The elders who were teachers hardly entertained and challenge
2.The accumulated knowledge and skills could not be preserved in written form.
3. Intellectual training occupied a very small place in the traditional African education.
4. It ignored other cognitive abilities like reasoning, which although it was imperative, was insufficiently
developed. So, sometimes everything happening, be it good or bad, was attributed to God’s will.
5.Their reasoning could not enable them to imagine alternatives to decision arrived at.
6. Learning was lineal; the young people were taught by elders who had experiences in societal life.
7. All the various taboos of the community were passed down to the younger generation without being
allowed to be challenged.
8. Women were seen as the source of labour, they did not own means of production neither did they
take part in decision making. Even in learning segregation took place as women were isolated from men
and were supposed to learn skills related to home management, midwifery, healthcare, weaving and
farming. On the other hand, men attended to those skills considered irrelevant to women; these
included, masonry, building, or fishery.
The 6-3-3-4 concept of Education
Education stands at the centre of the developmental activity,as it is a lifelong process used to uplighting
and sustain the individuaI. The socio- political and economic environment.Therefore, empowerment
through education is the bedrock of industrialisation.The 6-3-3-4 allows the child to spend six years at
the primary level, three years at the junior secondary school level, another three years at the senior
secondary level, and four years at the tertiary level.Primary education with regard to the 6-3-3-4 system
of education is the elementary type of education for children between ages 6 to 11 years. This is the
foundation of education upon which all others are built. It therefore determines the success or failure of
the whole system.
According to Okoro (2013),the education system is to provide a broad based education to students at
the Junior Secondary School level.This system of education imbibes both vocational and pre- vocational
objects in the new- curriculum are to develop in the student's aptitude for technical and manipulative
skills, inventiveness,self- reliance and dignity of labour
According to the National Policy on Education (NPE, 1981:22) “the broad aims of secondary education
with the overall education policy are:
a) Preparation for useful living within the society and
b) Preparation for higher education
Tertiary education which is the post-secondary education given in the higher institution aims at:
1. “The acquisition, development and inculcation of the proper value orientation for the survival of the
individual and society at large
2. The development of the intellectual capabilities of individuals to understand and appreciate their
environments
3. The acquisition of both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to develop.
4. The acquisition of the objective view of local and external environments”.
The 6-3-3-4 system of education was introduced in 1988 to replace the 6-5-4 system of education. This
educational system was structured and designed to bring functionality in the system by producing
graduates that make use of their head, heart and hands. The 6-3-3-4 system of education is job oriented
because its emphasis is on manual activities, technical proficiency, and respect for dignity of labour and
economic efficiency. It aimed at providing the child with basic tools to prepare him for local craft. In the
secondary stage emphasis is on the acquisition of vocational skills; while it is professionally oriented at
the tertiary stage. From the foregoing, it is very clear that the 6-3-3-4 system of education in Nigeria was
introduced to cater for the needs of the individuals as well as the country. The world is dynamic and as
such much emphasis is laid on science and technology. The nature of the present world shows that the
countries that are very serious with science and technology are far more developed than countries that
have low level of science and technology development. Science and technology no doubt helps in the
economic diversification with its attendant benefits such as employment generation, low level of
poverty as well as reduction in the level of insecurity.
CHALLENGES OF 6-3-3-4 EDUCATIONAL POLICY
The 6-3-3-4 policy on education has encountered a plethora of challenges which made it not to achieve
its desired objectives. A policy can be said to be successful if it achieves the desired goals. The 6-3-3-4
policy on education was formulated to ensure that students particularly in the secondary level acquire
skills through vocational training that would enable them to be self-reliant upon graduation at different
levels of their education.
The essence of the policy is that graduates from different educational levels have skills that would
enable them to start their own job and not wait for government to provide them with white collar jobs.
If the policy had succeeded, the high level of unemployment and poverty as we have in Nigeria presently
would not have been the order of the day.
The challenges facing the 6-3-3-4 policy on education include but not limited to the following:
1. Inadequate skilled manpower. As at the time the 6-3-3-4 policy on education was introduced, the
country lacked and still lacks enough skilled manpower to train the students in various vocations as
envisaged by the policy-makers. The end result of this is that the vocational aspect of the policy did not
succeed as expected.
2. Lack of necessary instructional and infrastructural facilities. Vocational training cannot be
possible where there is dearth of instructional and infrastructural facilities such as well-equipped
laboratories and workshops, and vocational equipment. Since the 6-3-3-4 policy on education
emphasizes vocational training, there is no way the policy would have succeeded in an environment
with inadequate or total lack of the necessary equipment needed for such vocational training.
3. Epileptic power supply. This is also another major challenge of the 6-3-3-4 policy on education.
Issue of power has been a recurring challenge in Nigeria since the inception of the Nigerian state.
Nigeria over the years has been experiencing epileptic power supply. Even in places where there is the
availability of equipment, epileptic power supply serves as impediment to efficient and effective use of
the available equipment.
4. Lack of adequate funding. It is very obvious that the education sector is not properly funded. The
6-3-3-4 policy on education requires proper funding to make it to succeed. The budgetary provision for
education over the years has been very poor and nothing to write home about. There is no way the 6-3-
3-4 educational policy would achieve its goals in the midst of poor funding.
5. Lack of proper planning. Dimock et al (1983:141) argued that, in its broadest sense: “Planning is
thinking before acting, establishing goals before setting out, and appreciating the limitations of planning
as well as the essential need for it”. The abysmal failure of the 6-3-3-4 educational policy shows that
proper planning was not done before the formulation of the policy.
According to Fafunwa (1982) “the training and procurement of teachers must precede all other
considerations”. He went further to say that “the development of any educational level pre-supposes
the availability of teachers in sufficient number to man the institutes. Widespread of curriculum reforms
in schools tointroduce technical education will be useless, unless qualified teachers are procured”. A
careful examination of the 6-3-3-4 policy on education would show that it is not only in the area of
trained teachers the policy-makers did notconsider appropriately but also in the area of power supply,
availability of instructional materials and other infrastructure to support the policy as well as funding. All
these factors are supposed to have been put into consideration before the 6-3-3-4 policy on education is
made.
CONCLUSION
No doubt the traditional education and the 6-3-3-4 policy on education are laudable ones which would
have launched the country into a technological advanced one with massive industrialization and
employment generation for sustainable development. The place of sustainable development in the well-
being of present and future generations of Nigerians cannot be over-emphasized.
This explains why it is very imperative for government to ensure it does everything within its power to
bring it about. The 6-3-3-4 policy on education could have been one way of achieving that but
unfortunately; the necessary factors that could have made the policy to succeed were not made
adequately available leading to the failure of the policy. It is very important for policy-makers to
consider necessary factors that can make the policy to succeed before formulating them, because if the
factors are not considered and made available, the policies to be made would not succeed. Government
should as much as possible take a critical look at the 6-3-3-4 educational policy and make provision for
those factors that can make it succeed. When this is done it will go a long way in making the country to
be among the technologically developed countries with massive industrialization and employment
generation which eventually could make the country achieve sustainable development.
REFERENCES
Okoro N.P et al: History and Policy of Nigerian Education
Egugbo Cletus et al:Policy Analysis of the 6-3-3-4 policy on Education in Nigeria.
PDE 5101,(2023): A Lecture note on National Policy of Nigerian Education
Abraham, N.T. (2010) Education for Development: Examining the Education-Development Nexus in
Nigeria.
