Educational Policies of Nigeria and South Korea Essay

Education has been the corner stone of the success of every economy. In terms of those countries which have been colonized and have adopted a government that was highly repressive in nature, one could significantly argue that such would post an effect to how education was being delivered, the degree of excellence of the aforementioned, the demands of the market and the availability of jobs, and finally its effects to the economy. This paper focuses on the educational history and policies of Nigeria and South Korea in relation to the British military government of the Nigerians and the Japanese occupation and the American military government of the South Koreans. These policies and norms are then significantly related to their employment systems and its effect on their economy. The objectives of this essay are the following: 1. To establish a brief account of the educational policies and norms of Nigeria and South Korean and significantly identify its relationship to the military government. 2. To significantly identify the effects of the educational policies and norms in relation to the availability of jobs to the citizens and consequently the continuous demands of the market for such jobs; and finally 3. To know the effects of educational excellence, jobs availability and demands to the sustainable development of an economy. Review of Related Literature Education and Military Government in Nigeria One of the major constitutional changes that happened to the government of Nigeria was in 1953, a few years after the World War II. Such a change took effect through the London Conference attended by both Nigerian and Colonial officials which places the country under the rule of a Governor General, having the aforementioned the leader of the three principle regions of the country. Such a change of the name of positions was a way for the British regime to increase the autonomous powers of the country thereby making education vested at the local level, which is in accordance with the aim of unifying the region (Patterson, 1955, p. 94). Education, other than representation and taxation was one of the autonomous areas of governance that is designated to the central government. As such it is with this respect that the government had ordered that the youth of Nigeria regardless of any region should be given â€Å"sound and uniform standards of performance† (p. 95). The objective of this educational policy is to have the youth fully prepared on their primary and secondary education so as to enable them to take higher education both inside and outside of the country. Within the new constitution, 34 subjects or areas of concern were given to the federal government to oversee. In addition with this, 14 subject areas were also created and delegated to the federal government to be administered to individual regions. Consequently, it has also been perceived that the successful implementation of these subjects could only happen if the individuals administering these areas were competent enough, hence resulting to the very high standards were implemented by the government in terms of employee recruitment (p. 5). Such a drive for the development of skills for the Nigerian youth resulted to the perceived shortness in terms of trained senior administrators and other technicians for various government and technical posts for the country. The federal government perceived that the shortage could only be remedied through higher education and long experience of the youth. At the end of 1953, it has been perceived that 5,000 senior service positions were available in which 3,300 of them were taken by overseas personnels or the â€Å"expatriates†. Only 800 positions are given to Nigerians, and there were still 900 positions more that were vacant (World Bank, 1955, p. 23). The drive of the British Government to improve the education in Nigeria resulted to the establishment of a program for development for African Territories under the British Crown. The program which was called the Colonial Development and Welfare Schemes was inaugurated in 1945 in which required the British Government to contribute 23,000,000 pounds sterling for ten years that would enable the country to develop and another loan of 26-500,000 pounds sterling that would be used to fund a number of projects including education and other research facilities (Patterson, 1955, p. 97). The result of such an effort on the end of the British Government paved the way for a consuming ambition among young Nigerians to be associated with the Government and take a number of white collar jobs (p. 8). Technical Education in Nigeria Technical education is placed as one of the major projects of the Ten-Year Plan for Development and Welfare for the post-war Nigeria. Institutions that would cater to technical skills, trade, and handicrafts were created after the Second World War. For instance, the Technical Institute of Yaba, the first center that was created outside Lagos offered three full-time and two part-time programs and special short courses. These skills were those relating to junior and senior technical and also teacher training. For a four-year education, the country had been offering instructions in wood working, drafting, sub-professional engineering, commerce and printing to those students who have completed eight years of primary education and have already passed a special entrance examination. The senior technical course offered by the institute focused on courses in electrical, mathematical and civil engineering, architectural assistance and economics. Consequently, there were also teacher-training programs which offer a two-year course to prepare teachers for handicraft centers and secondary school craft courses (World Bank, 1955, p. 582-583). On the other hand, the Trade Centers at Yaba aimed to produce skilled craftsmen by offering courses which range from two to five years. The students primarily learned on an apprenticeship basis after which they have already familiarized themselves with the tools of the trade and have learned to do simple tasks; consequently academic instructions were given to the students averages one day every week. After the students have already gained the skills that are necessary, they were contacted by the trade center to go to large cities in order to work. Part of the educational system was also the refusal to accept new students until a new class graduates. As such, the intake and output for some courses happened only once in every five years. For the first five years of the operation of the Yaba Centre, there were only 85 students who had graduated while 18 were dismissed and 13 of them resigned (p. 84). The Weakness of the Nigerian Education One major weaknesses of the Nigerian education was the inclination to have all areas of the Government to have properly staffed and well-trained individuals; as such resulting in having schools to have its own standards and specializations and independence from other educational efforts. Such an act resulted at times to the replication of jobs or over specialization on some skills, which were often criticized to prevent holistic development. It has been argued by some scholars that schools that were operated by the departments of governments had the inclination to emphasize subjects that were too technical up to the extent of neglecting certain subjects such as English, Mathematics and the Social Sciences. As such, some students after graduating from departmental schools normally look for jobs that they believed will be necessary for their employment rather than their abilities and interests (Patterson, 1955, p. 7-98). In effect of this, the inclination towards education had been something that was relative to that of available employment. Outside the market, it had been perceived that education had no value and in the long run, had stimulated little demand to the public. It is with this respect that competition among available jobs had been perceived to be very keen wherein the colonial Nigeria has clustered to commercial areas within the region (Davis and Kalu-Nwiwu, 2001, p. 1). It could also be significantly noted that education for women during the post-war Nigeria had also been problematic as although there were already several domestic science centers that were established, very few of them remained in actual operation. As such, the education of women had been lagging in the country. The education that was provided to women were those solely with regard to food preparation, sewing, cleaning, general sanitation and elementary skills in nursing (World Bank, 1955, p. 588).