CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

It is commonly presumed that formal schooling is one of several important contributors to the

skills of an individual and to human capital. It is not the only factor asparents, individual abilities

and friends undoubtedly contribute as well. Schools nonetheless have a special place, not only

because education and „skill creation‟ are among their prime explicit objectives, but also because

they are the factors most directly affected by public policies. It is well established fact that the

distribution of personal incomes in society is dependent on education people have had. Generally

speaking more schooling means higher lifetime incomes. These outcomes emerge over the long

term. It is not people‟s income while in school that is affected, nor their income in their first job,

but their income over the course of their working life. Thus, any noticeable effects of the current

quality of schooling on the distribution of skills and income will become apparent some years in

the future, when those now in school become a significant part of the labour force (Samuel,

2010).

The term “Education” referring to learning or knowledge acquisition by means of skillful

combination of alphabets “literacy” has long been a familiar instrument for passing civilizations

and socio-cultural norms and traditions from one generation to another among Nigerians,

especially in the northern part of the country with its long tradition of Ajami literacy

(Tibendirana, 2003).

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Western education with its intellectual tradition of organized formal learning institutional

framework designed to impact diverse knowledge, skills and aptitude was brought to Nigeria

through missionaries and their colonial administrators in the later part of 19th century.

Indeed, colonial education in both British and Francophone sub-Sahara Africa was initially

minimal in content mainly designed to produce local clerks, administrative aids and limitedly

skilled technical assistants. (Aina, 1994). Graduates of this pioneer education system became the

first sets of indigenous intellectual and political elites and they later constituted nationalist that