1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. Background of the Study

“We are all called men but only those of us who are truly human, who are

civilized by the studies of proper culture.” – Cicero1

In 2008, I returned home from Ekiti State where I did my National Youth

Service Corps (NYSC) Programme and in December 2010, I joined the University

of Nigeria, Nsukka, as a Graduate Assistant. Between 2008 and 2010, I was an

English Language teacher, and the Acting Principal of Paraclete College, Eha-

Azuabor (a private secondary school) in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu

State. The two-year experience, not only as a classroom teacher but also an acting

principal, brought me very close to the business environment of secondary

education in Nigeria. Indeed, I interacted with teachers, students of my own school

and those of other schools around. I gained some knowledge about teaching and

what it looks like teaching in a secondary school. I mingled freely with students,

teachers and parents, especially during some curricular and extra-curricular

activities like lessons, conduct of internal and external examinations, inter-school

quiz competitions, send-off parties/graduation ceremonies, (May 27) Children’s

Day celebrations, etc.

In addition, during my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Programme

between October 2007 and September 2008, in Ekiti State, my place of primary

assignment was Oluwalose Grammar School Ipoti, Ijero Local Government Area. I

2

taught English Language in all the three senior classes. The experience I had over

there was also quite enriching.

As I reflected over these whole experiences, Plato came to my mind. I think

Plato’s theory of knowledge, namely: the elenchus, the allegory of the cave, the

metaphor that virtue is knowledge; vice ignorance, his view of art as mimesis, and

his dialectic can offer an enlightened guide to tackling many problems facing

secondary education in Nigeria (despite their weaknesses). However, it is important

to note that we cannot discuss Plato without his master, Socrates. Plato and

Socrates are duo. Although, Socrates did not write down his thoughts, Plato’s

writings are Socrates’ mouthpiece. Most of Plato’s literary works consist of

“Socratic Dialogues,” that is, dialogues, in which Socrates is the main speaker and

the superior intellect.2 The present state of secondary education in Nigeria can be

likened to the situation and environment under which Socrates spoke and Plato

wrote. The Athens (Greece) of their days was full of injustice, sophistry,

corruption, ignorance, untested knowledge, corruptible communication, vices,

uncensored arts, false beliefs, and faulty educational system.

So, as a reaction, Socrates called man to order “man know thyself.”3 Thus,

for Socrates, “unexamined life is not worth living.”4 This order called by Socrates

and Plato through re-examination is still very true and much more urgent in the

present Nigerian education environment, especially, in the secondary schools. The

examination and re-examination will be holistic; hence touching on the secondary

school environment, the family, the student, the teacher, contents of study, and the

government. This work is grist for the mills of finding answers to the questions that

3

stare into the face of Nigerian secondary education. As I indicated in the beginning,

and by the choice of this topic, Plato’s theory of knowledge is our guide.

2. Statement of the Problem

A look at the state of Nigerian secondary education gives one little or no

reason for celebration. The behaviours and attitudes of students, teachers, and

parents and even government towards education and the over-all secondary

education management have left much to be desired. The level of decay, neglect,

delinquency, frivolity, moral decadence, ignorance, vice, illiteracy, crass stupidity,

violence, apathy, callousness, and gross mismanagement that have engulfed our

secondary schools are sources of worry. The entire situation is appalling, pathetic,

shocking, complicated and intractable. This ugly trend makes one wonder aloud:

who is to blame; teachers, students, parents/guardians, the curriculum, or the

Nigerian government? What should be done to create a positive change? What are

other factors that contribute to the bad state of our secondary education? Why is it

that everybody complains about most students’ bad behaviour, poor performances

in academics, uncouth attitude, squandamania mentality, and the corresponding

poor parenting, incompetence of teachers and ineffectiveness of government, yet

virtually nothing is done about all these? President Goodluck Jonathan’s

administration is pursuing the vision 20:20:20 agenda. But the question is: How

feasible shall it be considering the poor education standard in Nigeria? To be

precise, the poor output we have from our tertiary education is a resultant effect of

poor management of secondary school students.

4

Among the factors that contribute to the poor management of secondary

schools in Nigeria, corruption has been mentioned as the major one. It has been

observed that many teachers in Nigeria are either charlatans or indolent. Further,

students themselves are not helping matters; they are non-challant and seem to

have no aim or focus. In addition, many parents in recent times manifest what one

may call ‘hostility on children.’ Very many of them have abandoned their

responsibility to their children/wards. In fact, a laissez-faire atmosphere

characterizes the secondary school environment. Many stakeholders in child

education and child development have forgotten that secondary school age is

adolescence, and that this is the most crucial stage in child development, involves a

lot of developmental crises and consequently require utmost care. This neglect is

costly as it has serious implications for adulthood and meaningful tertiary

education. It is the attempt to bring Plato’s theory of knowledge to bear on the

crises of secondary education in Nigeria that has informed the choice of the topic

of this dissertation: “Plato’s Theory of Knowledge and its Implications for Nigerian

Secondary Education.

3. Purpose of the Study

The main objective of this study is to examine Plato’s theory of knowledge

with a view to showing its implications for secondary education in Nigeria. The

other specific objectives include: (1) to determine whether knowledge is virtue

whereas vice is ignorance,5 despite human tendency to act rightly or wrongly as a

result of non-rational motivation such as emotion, as Plato claimed; (2) ascertain

whether Plato was right to conclude that elenchus is the greatest good for humans;

5

(3) determine whether every communication of thought is education; (4) to

examine Nigeria’s education system and education philosophy from pre-colonial

days till date (2014) in order to understand, interpret and evaluate them.

4. Significance of the Study

This study is significant at two levels: theory and practice. At the level of

theory, this is an addition to the extant literature on education and suggestion on

how to solve Nigeria’s educational problems.

At the level of practice, it is hoped that the suggestions made in this work

will help education policy makers, curriculum planners and implementers to make

necessary adjustments that will turn the future of Nigeria’s education practice

around for good as this pertains to secondary education. Teachers, parents or

guardians and students alike will benefit from it as this concerns child psychology

of education and development.

5. Scope of the Study

The scope of this research is limited to Plato’s education theory and the

practice of Nigerian secondary education. Specifically, Enugu state secondary

education will be used as case study. Further, the history of education in Nigeria is

treated.

6. Research Methodology

The qualitative research design was used for this study. This study adopted

the historical, expository, and evaluative method. The historical method was used

to put Nigerian education, and Nigerian secondary education, in particular, and the

philosopher (Plato) under study in an historical perspective. The expository method

6

was used to enhance an adequate understanding of the nature and practice of

Nigeria’s secondary education and Plato’s idea on education. And the evaluative

method was applied to ascertain the efficacy and tenability of Plato’s education

ideas. Data of this research were collected from books, journals/periodicals, the

internet, oral interviews, and unpublished lectures.

7

ENDNOTES

1. Joseph O. Eneh, An Unpublished Lecture on Philosophy of Education

(University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 2004).

2. David L. Sills ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences,

Volume 11 & 12 (New York: Macmillan Library, Simon & Schuster, 1972), 161,

sv: “Plato” by Karl R. Popper.

3. Plato, Alcibiades, 124a; Philebus, 48c-d. The Dialogues of Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett. (London: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 1993).

4. Plato, Apology, 38a. The Dialogues of Plato Translated by Benjamin

Jowett. (London: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 1993).

5. Plato, Protagoras, 361a-e, 330a-e, 357a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

Complete Works. Translated by Stanley Lombardo and Karen Bell (Cambridge:

Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

8

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

This Literature Review is given a two-part approach. The first part looks at

the meaning of education and reflections on works written on Plato’s theory of

knowledge or criteriology/epistemology as it pertains to education, if any. The

second part is on education as practiced in Nigeria, including some of the problems

affecting it, with specific focus on secondary education, forms/history of education

and curriculum development in Nigeria and philosophies behind them.

What is Education?

Education can be defined as a system of formal teaching and learning as

conducted through schools and other institutions.1 In other words, education is a

process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools and colleges, to

improve knowledge and develop skills.2 There are three forms or types of

education, namely: formal, informal and non-formal.3

Formal Education: This is the type of education received in formal institutions of

learning like the Primary School, Post-Primary Schools (Secondary Schools,

Technical/Commercial Schools), and Tertiary Institutions such as the Universities,

Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Teacher Training Colleges, etc.

Informal Education: This process of education includes all the agencies outside

the formal school system which influence the child’s experience or learning. This

type of education can be found at home, in the church, mosque, farm, market,

workshops, etc. In addition, the mass media (radio, television, the internet, films,

9

newspapers, etc) also provide informal education. The child learns mainly through

experience in informal education.

Non-formal Education: This type of education is neither formal nor informal.

Like the formal education, non-formal education is planned but it is not within the

regular educational system. It is received in the form of workshops, public

enlightenment programmes and short-time courses organized for workers by their

employers, government and/or private organizations. Non-formal education also

provides education to those who cannot attend full and regular schooling due to

age, job or other commitments. For example, the idea of Open University of

Nigeria is a boost to non-formal education. It is important to note that India used

this system of education to produce a made-in-India car called ‘Data.’ In Africa,

Ghana is at the forefront of adapting non-formal Education as a major focus in

Ghanaian Education.

Furthermore, one school of thought holds that ‘education’ was coined from

the Latin word “educere” meaning “to lead out” or to foster.” Another school of

thought says that the word ‘education’ was formed from the Latin word “educare”

which means “to mould” or “to make.”4 The “educere” school believes that human

beings are born with innate ideas/potentials and so the duty of the teacher or the

educator is to lead forth, to foster and to enhance these ideas. This understanding is

in line with the view of Socrates that man is a complex being and a bundle of

innate abilities, and that those potentials are to be developed. The “educare” school

holds that the human brain is totally empty at birth, a clean slate, which nothing is

written on; hence the brain is “tabula rasa in qua nihil scriptum est.”5 Therefore,

10

the child has to be brought up or reared up through education. According to this

school, even if there is anything on the mind/brain of the newborn, it is at the

rudimentary form, and needs development as it may remain undeveloped if left

alone. So, education is to make something out of nothing.6 However, one unifying

factor in the word ‘education’ is that it is a normative concept, that is, it is

worthwhile, desirable and valued in all societies.7

Thus seen, education is the aggregate of all processes by which a child or

young adult develops the abilities and other forms of behaviour which are of

positive value to the society in which he/she lives.8 As a discipline, education is a

body of accumulation of knowledge, a proper organization of experience which is

presented to the learner; hence education deals with various aspects/branches of

organized knowledge. It cannot be over-emphasized that education has three

domains: the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective.9 These domains are

referred to as the 3Hs in education representing the Head, the Hand and the Heart;

a truly educated persons uses the 3Hs effectively.

Conceptualizing knowledge and education are the major variables in this

research, as such this review centres on theory of knowledge or

criteriology/epistemology. Theory of knowledge is about the nature of knowing,

the objects of knowledge, range and limits of knowing, what happens beyond those

limits and consideration of what are fundamental to knowledge, namely

experience, reason, intuition, etc. It is, therefore, crucial for human beings to find a

sound basis for their beliefs and acts. The way one provides answers to questions

about how to know or communicate/teach the best and how best to take decisions

11

on personal and social issues is a function of one’s understanding of the nature of

knowledge.

Parmenides was the first to make a systematic distinction between

knowledge and belief. He discussed things for what they are, that is, as entities.10

He stated that intelligence/knowledge (noûs) is essentially united to the entity (ón).

In his work On Nature, Parmenides discussed the way of truth and the way of

opinion, and concluded that for true certainty to be attained, it is necessary to

‘learn’ or understand the ‘inviolable heart of well-rounded truth’ as well as

opinions.11

Thus, he opined that the essence of education is to grasp the truth, the

immovable and the imperishable, and differentiate them from mere beliefs.

Democritus wrote that there is a sharp contrast between reality and

appearance - that atoma (atoms) and the kenon (void) are the only realities and that

qualities perceived by the senses are mere appearances.12

He believed that

knowledge most connote reality not just appearance and that teaching and learning

must be deliberate efforts to acquire genuine knowledge.

Jaakko Hintikka, in his book, Socratic Epistemology: Explorations of

Knowledge-Seeking by Questioning, cherishes the Socratic Plato’s idea about

knowledge acquisition as a process of questioning or elenchus.13

He regrets that

many philosophers have been talking about “virtue epistemology,” but in practice,

the virtue they admire are, in fact, NOT concerned with true epistemological virtue

in the sense of epistemological excellence. Rather, they are concerned with only

how to avoid logic sin/mistakes.14

This issue of lack of epistemological excellence

is one of the motivating factors that informed the choice of this research. In fact,

12

the over-all delivery of education, especially secondary education in Nigeria lacks

epistemological excellence and good moral psychology.

Abrol Fair Weather and Linda Zagzebski in their book, Virtue Epistemology:

Essay on Epistemic Virtue and Responsibility, in a descriptive statement, view

epistemic virtue as good basis for developing illuminating necessary and sufficient

conditions for justified belief and knowledge.15

For them, epistemic virtue, which is

rooted in Platonism, promotes what they call individual epistemic responsibility –

such as observing a scene more closely and checking one’s reasoning on a problem

– and can be very useful in guiding both the process of education and exercise of

judgement.16

This idea is relevant to this research as it emphasizes examined life

and educational development of the ‘self,’ which is desperately lacked in Nigeria.

Ernest Sosa, in his work, A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective

Knowledge, shares the same view with Platonic issues of epistemic normativily.

That is, the ability to judge performances, whether artistic or social; grade products

of craft or ingenuity; evaluate attitudes, emotions, behaviour and institutions, etc in

order to achieve truth and excellence.17

Charles Kahn, in his Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical

Use of Literary Form, writes that Plato’s conception of education/knowledge is not

only a method of replacing false beliefs with true one but also a way to change

radically the moral and intellectual orientation of the learner, who, like the prisoner

in the care, must be converted – turned around – in order to see the light.18

Julia Annas, in her work, Plato: A Very Short Introduction, discusses Plato’s

theory of knowledge and educational reform as a way to produce persons whose

13

self-conception is primarily that of a citizen, one whose life goals are shared with

those of his/her fellow citizens.19

One of the major problems that confront Nigerian

education is lack of patriotism and poor vision for project-Nigeria. This dissertation

is a move to emphasize in the light of Annas’ view that education in Nigeria,

especially secondary education has not achieved love of Nigeria among Nigerians.

Julia Annas again, in her book Platonic Ethics, Old and New, writes that

Plato was doing ethics of education in his theory of knowledge. Thus, she opines

that one cannot become virtuous unless one is a product of the kind of radically

critical education, epistemological account and habituation which Plato posulates.20

Annas, therefore, concludes that Plato’s education principles are capable of

nurturing one to develop the ability for what she (Annas) calls ‘dogged fight’

against vices or ignorance. This Socratic ‘force’ of doggedness in fighting

intellectual darkness or wrong acts has implications for Nigerian education, as it

can help many so-called educated Nigerians who seem to love laxity and self-

indulgence to have a change of attitude.

M. S. Lane, in his book, Method and Politics in Plato’s Statesman, writes

that Plato defends unchanging knowledge and emphasizes the link between

knowledge and authority. He expatiates this view by arguing that anyone who must

hold any office or authority must possess a form of expert knowledge.21

By

extension, for any educational authority/system to be efficacious, it must be fully

submerged in know-how.

Egbeke Aja, in his book, Elements of Theory of Knowledge, writes that

fundamental issues about theory of knowledge are those of questions about

14

‘thinking’ and ‘what is present to the mind when one thinks.’ He says that a theory

of knowledge must be an answer or a set of answers to a question or set of

questions as it concerns establishment of truth (about anything) and elimination of

false beliefs.22

Aja believes that Plato’s epistemology is rooted in critical

examination of implications of doctrines23

– like the belief that knowledge is

perception. He further argues that theory of knowledge is relevant to most issues

that need clarity, especially educational enterprise.24

In line with Platonic thinking,

Aja opines that the central aim of education is to help persons sharpen their

faculties, be conscious of human values and achieve integrated personality.25

Nigeria’s education, especially her secondary education, does not seem to take

those aims of education seriously, thereby bringing about the lack of trained

products which is centrally the research problem that this dissertation is poised to

tackle.

Michael Arinze, in his “A Look into the Entertainment Industry”,

emphasizes the correlation between education and entertainment. He writes that

many vices, namely immorality, indecent dresses, violence, corruption, etc are

spreading today among Nigerian youths through the social media.26

However, it is

not the social media that are entirely the problem but the way they are used,

received and held in society. He called for censorship of products of art. This is a

perfect support to Plato’s idea.

Janet Gonzalez-Mena, in her book Foundations of Early Childhood

Education: Teaching Children in a Diverse Society, writes that the best ways to

communicate or teach children are to “ask real questions, NOT rhetorical ones” and

15

avoid what she calls “Double-bind Messages”27

(double-bind messages are the kind

of mixed messages that cause confusion). By extension, this is a belief in elenchus

and dialectic for elimination of illusion and establishment of truth and clarity.

However, she describes punishment as a “No No.”28

She believes that punishment

is not an effective guidance tool for children.

Punishment only teaches obedience, and children who learn to be

obedient are in danger of always confronting and never questioning

authority. Teaching obedience hinders children from developing

intellectual and critical-thinking skills; instead guidance is a good

alternative to punishment.29

This point is one of the problems that this dissertation wants to clarify because

punishment is indispensable to child education. Total indulgence and child

guidance without punishment make children prone to character deformation and

careless life.

Uduchukwu A. N., in his “Effective Teacher Preparation Programme: A

Panacea for Achieving the Vision 20:20:20 of the Federal Government of Nigeria”,

writes that education is a major tool for both individual and state development.30

He suggests that serious attention must be paid to education management, if

Nigeria is to achieve the vision 20:20:20.

Alu Nlenanya Chinweokwu, in “Needs and Strategies for Curriculum

Reform in Science Education in Secondary Schools”, writes that curriculum is a

central issue in knowledge development and education, and regrets that despite

Nigeria’s curriculum reforms so far, Nigeria’s curriculum has been mostly exam-

centered.31

He emphasizes that Nigerian education has been limited to the

acquisition of certificate (“meal ticket”) for employment purposes. This

16

degenerated examinations, in Nigeria, to a do-or-die affair with all kinds of

malpractices. Recipients of such certificate are the would-be-teachers who end up

achieving no critical thinking competence and no skills. Nigeria needs a new

curriculum with a more serious approach to skill acquisition and critical thinking to

solve problems of life challenges today.32

Nwangwu I. O., in his “Principals’ and Teachers’ Perception of Unethical

Behaviours in Secondary Schools in Nsukka Education Zone”, writes that bad

behaviours have engulfed Nigeria’s School System nowadays.33

He argues that

because teachers have onerous tasks in imparting knowledge and shaping students’

character, the enforcement of teachers’ code of conduct is as important and

imperative as the teaching responsibility itself if Nigeria is to make headway in her

educational endeavours.

Onuigbo L.N., in her “Street Begging Among In-School Sensory Impaired

Children in Enugu State”, draws attention to the incidence of begging among the

special needs persons in Nigeria. She believes that education should equip one to

live a meaningful and useful life without begging for alms. She concludes that

Nigerian Government should give free education and other basic needs of life to

the special needs students at all levels in order to guarantee ‘inclusive education’ in

Nigeria.34

John Santrock, in his book Children, quotes Laura Bickford as saying that:

“the call to teach is the call to teach students how to think; that teachers need to

show students the value in asking ‘their own questions’, in having discussions and

engaging in stimulating intellectual conversations; that students should be taught to

17

engage in metacognitive strategies (metacognition means knowing about

knowing).”35

This idea, indeed, is in Plato and is the call in this dissertation.

Santrock concludes that in order for the above to materialize, students should be

taught character education, value classification, cognitive moral education and

service learning/doing.

Akanwa U. N. and Olatunji S.O., in their “Comparative Analysis of

Students’ Performance in May/June SSCE Organized by WAEC and NECO: The

Issue of Standards”, write that the standard of educational achevements at the

SSCE (Senior Secondary Certificate Examination) level are seriously divindling.36

They express that the two examination boards in Nigeria: NECO (National

Examinations Council) and WAEC (West African Examinations Council) have

brought low their standards of scoring in order to attract high patronage by

candidates and recommended intervention programmes on WAEC and NECO to

ensure desirable standards.

Chukwudum B. Okolo, in his book, Education and Nigerian Values: A

Companion for Students, writes with a Platonic temperament that morals and

wealth of the soul make a person. He argues that Nigerian educational process be

made to help Nigerians appreciate and strive for moral values.37

He further stresses

that the fons et origo (the very fountain head) of Nigerian trouble is wrong attitude

to value, and the only way out is development of the ‘self’ through ‘relevant

education.’38

Ogbo L. Ugwuanyi, in his book Qualitative University Education, writes that

most students (including secondary school students), in Nigeria, believe that

18

‘anything can pass’ for education causing lack of full import of sound education

among them.39

Ogbo believes that the most cardinal evil, in Nigeria today is

education without character.40

Kingsley C. Igbonekwu, in “A Lamentable Status Quo”, blames the gross

degeneration of education in Nigeria on poor parenting, incompetence of teachers,

bad government and students’ bad approach to learning.41

He advocates ‘self’

education for Nigerians.

Nnamdi Azikiwe (former Executive President of Nigeria), in Nigerian

Education defines education as ‘power of enfranchisement’ which can produce

Nigerians who are not only intelligent people, who are cultured and skilled, but

also leaders who adapt themselves to their environment, adjust themselves to the

outside world and give direction and purpose to Nigerians for the building of a

viable and modern nation.42

B. A. Adeyemi et al, in “An Overview of Educational Issues in Nigeria:

Thoughts and Reflections”, emphasize that despite the laudable educational

programmes put in place by various governments in Nigeria, between 1960 and

2014, much has not been achieved in really pushing education forward in this

country. They believe that the 6-3-3-4 system of education practiced in Nigeria,

from 1982, has failed and only a handful of Nigerians by dint of hardwork reflect

the indices of being educated – the educational sector is close to a total collapse.43

O. E. Abdullahi, in his “Secondary Education in Nigeria”, writes that

secondary education in Nigeria lacks fruition of moral integrity, intellectual

furniture, and skills mastery in its recipients.44

He feels that the future of Nigerian

19

secondary school students are bleak if nothing urgent is done. It is an attempt to

rescue Nigerian secondary school students from the ugly trend that prompted the

choice of this dissertation.

Nathaniel Ugwu, in his “Building the Youths Extra-Physio”, quotes P.

Heinecke as saying:

Nigeria no longer has an educational system but a schooling

system which does not merit the name of education because it

systematically denies youths the most basic human rights to ‘work’

and to stand on their own feet, to be self-reliant and to support

themselves and their communities.45

Nathaniel says that all those involved in education should do everything to curb

squandamania mentality among students. Unless that is done, many Nigerian

students will continue to pursue wrong courses, pursue certificates without real

knowledge, hate work/duty and remain charlatans.

D.C.U. Okoro, in “Basic Education – Emerging Issues, Challenges and

Constraints”, is worried about poor delivery of education in Nigeria, which he

believes is caused by value crises, and neglect of obligations.46

He calls for a

philosophical review of Nigeria’s education policies and use of mother tongue for

instruction forthwith and henceforth.

Lawrence Offie Ocho, in his book, The Philosophy of Education for Nigeria,

writes that what child education lacks a great deal, in Nigeria today, are control,

restriction and philosophy of punishment.47

He believes that freedom is rooted in

control, including self-control and education. Removing all restrictions from

children does not make them free but rather makes them slaves of the bullies, the

strong and the smart who would control others negatively.

20

Joyce L. Epstein, in “Family and Education”, writes that the major problem

facing education today is poor family, community and school partnership in

education.48

He calls for full commitment to duty of all agents of socialization as it

concerns child education and development.

Ben Nwabueze, in his book, Crises and Problems in Education in Nigeria, is

of the view that if Nigeria must manage her secondary schools well, she must

among other factors, take enforcement of discipline, effective use of staff,

curricular coverage, and positive attitudes to work/duty seriously.49

Adeniji Adaralegbe, in “History and Purpose of Secondary Education”,

maintains that Nigerian secondary schools are not what they ought to be. He is

upset about irrelevant curriculum, indiscipline and corruption in our secondary

schools. He believes that the purpose of secondary education is to develop, in the

students: pride in hardwork, duty consciousness, self-discipline, self-reliance, and

good moral life.50

K. O. A. Noah, in “Deconstructing the Concept of Re-branding through

Education for Social Equality”, writes that the call for rebranding of Nigeria, in

2008, suffices to say that most Nigerian educational ‘products’ and their

‘manufacturers’ have failed and turned into particular type of things that are not

good and acceptable.51

The remedies, he suggests, are paradigm shift, curriculum

reorganization and a new kind of education that is rooted in morality.

Okeze Emmanuel and Okechukwu Evaritus, in their “Home Videos in the

Family”, writes that the negative impacts of some products of art are felt

everywhere in Nigeria today and the worst-hit are children.52

They argue that such

21

negative art products mar the lives of Nigerian children and called on

parents/families to scrutinize movies that their children watch.

Ali Anselm, in “The Impact of Responsible Parenthood on the Society”, sees

education as a function of home training.53

Elobuike Malachy Nwabuisi, in his

“Education for What?”, defines education as a key to solutions of value crises. He

says:

Value as a principle of choice and decision-making has a lot to do

with the way Nigerians practice or operate their education

system.54

The question now is: How can Nigerians be made to pursue and cherish objective

and desirable value? This is the question this dissertation is set to answer.

Ayo Adewole, in his “Preliminary Remarks on Nigerian Education in the

21st Century”, says that the main factor that has caused the failure of Nigerian

education sector is ‘poverty of philosophy’ and lack of concern for ‘principles.’

This point is relevant to my thesis, as only examined life can pursue principles to a

logical conclusion.55

Suleiman Nasiru, in his “Nigeria’s 2013 Budget: Reaction as Education Gets

Priority", defines the right to education in the 21st century as the right to participate

in the life of modern world, which is only possible through full government

commitment to education.56

Dayo Odukoya, in “Formulating and Implementation of Educational Policies

in Nigeria”, in a clear statement, writes that education is a fundamental human right

and establishes the relationship between education and development, but regrets

that poor Nigerians are excluded from the process and outcomes of education.57

22

Alison Scott Baumann et al, in their book, Becoming a Secondary School

Teacher, defines adolescence as an “illness” rooted in physiological, emotional and

cognitive factors that need careful management.58

Effective control of adolescence

pressure has a lot of influence on the educational development of the child and any

fixation at adolescence is usually intractable and chronic; hence a major motivation

for this research.

Anya Iwe, in his book, Education at the Cross Road: Critical Issues, argues

that good secondary education depends on the quality of tuition given to students

NOT award of mere certificate; possession of mere certificate is hardly a guarantee

that the holder has the corresponding knowledge.59

I. Ogboru, in “Educational Policy and Standards: A Key to a Productive

Economy”, notes that human development needs deeper understanding through a

reflection on what is known as a way of finding a principle to illuminate the facts

and take appropriate actions.60

Nwafor Emmanuel, in “Path to Discernment of Media Messages”, writes that

the mass media have three fundamental functions which are: provision of

information, education and entertainment, and so, they exert double influence

(positive or negative) on humanity.61

Unfortunately, Nigerians neglect what he

calls ‘silent reflection’ on the products of the media. The way out is effective use of

the media through the transmission of moral and cultural values.

Samuel Amaele, in Understanding the Philosophy of Education, writes that

the educational objectives of Nigeria suffer from a ‘disease’ he calls lack of well-

23

defined national philosophy.62

This dissertation is a search for an efficacious

philosophy of education for Nigerian secondary education.

Samuel Amaele, again, in his Moral Values in Nigerian Education: Issues

Problems and Prospects, examines the various aspects of Nigerian education and

expresses that there is an unbearable explosion of moral crisis in Nigerian

schools.63

He suggests adequate and proper use of punishment and rewards in

Nigerian schools. This idea is a key point of this dissertation using Plato as a guide.

Regina Eya, in Child Abuse and Neglect: A Nigerian Perspective, describes

child Abuse as any non-accidental acts of omission on the part of parents or other

caretakers aimed at hurting, injuring or destroying the child.64

She believes that

denial of good education to a child is child abuse.65

And that Nigeria will remain

undeveloped, if child abuse is not addressed urgently.

Regina Eya, again, in her Child Psychology: An Introduction with a Chpater

on Cloning, shows that adolescence is a crucial stage in child development and

solicited adequate use of child psychology by parents, teachers and education

administrators in child education.66

At this juncture, it is evident that many scholars, educators and philosophers

alike have written much on Plato’s theory of knowledge. Also, many have written

on Nigerian education and its state but there is still a knowledge gap, as no

literature has been on Plato’s theory of knowledge vis-à-vis its implications for

secondary education in Nigeria. It is this knowledge gap that created the motivation

for this research.

24

FORMS/HISTORY OF EDUCATION AND CURRICULUM

DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

This historical survey of education and curriculum development in Nigeria is

divided into three periods, namely: the pre-colonial, the colonial, and the post-

colonial.

THE PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD

In this period, Nigeria had traditional and Islamic education.

a. Traditional Education in Nigeria

Traditional method of education is the oldest form of education in Nigeria.67

Traditional education or indigenous education preceded both Islamic and

Western/Christian education in Nigeria. It has been used in training children and

youths in the family, and in the villages.68

It is a continuous process in the family,

but the school takes over the greater responsibilities of socialization and formal

education when the child starts schooling. Thus, in traditional education, training

goes `on throughout life.

After maturity, one assumes the role of a teacher of the younger generation

and also gets prepared for the old age roles. The idea behind this life-long training

is to make the person fit for his environment.

Aims of Traditional Education

The aim of traditional education is multilateral; its objective is to produce an

individual who is honest, respectful, skilled, co-operative and conforms to the

social order of the day.69

Seven aspects of educational objective of traditional

education are identifiable according to Babs Fafunwa, as follows:

25

i. to develop a child’s latent physical skills;

ii. to develop character;

iii. to inculcate respect for elders and those in position of authority;

iv. to develop intellectual skills;

v. to acquire specific vocational training and to develop a healthy attitude towards

honest labour and duty;

vi. to develop a sense of belonging and to participate actively in family and

community affairs; and

vii. to understand, appreciate and promote the cultural heritage of the community

as a whole.70

Therefore, traditional education prepares the individual physically, socially,

morally, intellectually, and vocationally, so as to make the individual fit to shoulder

the responsibility of life.71

Traditional Nigerian child climbs palm trees, does

domestic duties, goes to farm and market, rears animals like goats and fowls, and

helps in caring for his/her younger siblings. Thus, good character formation is

optimal due to full participation of the individual in various activities of life. Moral

training is given by inculcating self-discipline into the child. He is also trained

morally by making the child believe in African Traditional Religion (ATR) and/or

the supreme deities, or God. Traditional education frowns at stealing, lying,

violence, cheating, murder, waywardness, laziness and disobedience, etc. Any

breach of the traditional rules and taboos attracts serious sanctions by men, society,

and the gods or God.

26

Intellectually, the Nigerian child develops his power of reasoning through

story-telling, folklores, riddles and proverbs. For instance, Chinua Achebe says

that: “Among the Igbo, the art of conversation is regarded highly and proverbs are

the palm oil with which words are eaten.”72

Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine

portrays the importance of adherence to the expectations of the traditional society;

hence the story of Ihụọma, a beautiful young widow of exemplary character, who

has the admiration of the entire community in which she lives, especially of the

hunter, Ekweme.73

Also, Cyprian Ekwensi’s An African Night’s Entertainment is a

long tale of vengeance, adventure and love showing how in traditional Nigerian

society, education is made possible through tales.74

Hence, bed time and moon light

nights are usually spent with morally bound stories, which are told to children, to

highlight the importance of maintaining a ‘good name’ or ‘good character.’

In traditional societies, in Nigeria, the principles of authority and obedience

are defined. So, unquestioning obedience on the part of the young and exercise of

authority on the part of the elders are accepted modes of teaching and learning in

the society. Okafor illustrates: “The young dare not be frivolous or flippant in the

presence of an elder. They must not answer back when rebuked by an elder,

whether the person is one’s parent, older sibling or an extraneous elderly person.

Rather, they must listen carefully and take note.”75

Thus, the Nigerian child is

trained to respect elders, human life, be humble and be self-disciplined. Normally,

gender roles are maintained as the males learn from their fathers and other male

members of the family, while the females learn from their mothers and other

27

female members of the family. Even the extended family and the community are

involved in child training and traditional education. Odo and Ede opine that:

In our traditional setting, education is regarded as a social duty for

social purpose; its content is the whole culture and it is the duty of

the adult members to pass it on to the young in order to make them

useful members of the community.76

The child in Nigerian traditional setting belongs to the whole community and the

natural parents are more or less “trustees.” The failure of the child is the shame of

the community and his success, the community’s glory. Thus, the child’s teacher is

the entire society, the school is every social situation, and the lesson of the day is

the prevailing situation.

Furthermore, training for various vocations and skills acquisition start in the

family and may extend to specialization under the outside experts. In traditional

business education, calculations are done orally and off hand and knowledge is

always applied to concrete situations. What is more is that when we speak of

Nigerian traditional education, we are referring to the educational practices and

systems which the various Nigerian tribes or communities use in bringing up their

young ones in the way of life of the people. In Igboland for instance, the Ahịajọkụ

Lecture Series are a Pan-Igbo festival, thought of as an intellectual harvest aimed at

self-assessment of the Igbo as a cultural group. In other words, the annual event,

under the banner of Ahịajọkụ Lecture, is a statement which tries to look at the Igbo

from all perspectives of human discipline. It has, in a subtle blend of

intellectualism, academics, and sociology, offered an avenue for a periodic

articulation of some contributions of Igbo people to the Nigerian civilization, and

28

indeed, to humanity.77

It is worthy of note that the Ahịajọkụ Lectures started on

October 30, 1979 and the inaugural lecture was delivered by M.J.C Echeruo.78

The

Ahịajọkụ transcends statism and party politics; it is about the humanly observable

external truths of the Igbo geared towards a wake-up to the realities of the Igbo

essence. In other words, Ahịajọkụ is a major milestone in the Igbo effort at cultural

awakening, which is necessary in almost all aspects of human endeavour if Igbo

are to make, as expected of them, significant contributions to the evolution of a

Nigerian national culture, in particular, and rapidly evolving world culture in

general.79

In the 1982 edition of the Ahiajoku Lecture, the lecturer, Anya Oko

Anya, emphasized the essence of conserving Igbo culture and tradition. Thus, he

said:

When our ancestors saw us in the procession today as we shuffled

our sandalled feet to the same rhythms

They heard the same words of wisdom uttered

Between puffs of pale blue smoke

They saw us

And said: they have not changed.80

To be sure, the 2009 Ahịajọkụ lecture delivered by Chinua Achebe was an effort to

project Igbo Language more; hence it was written and delivered in Igbo. He had

two versions of the lecture – one in Ogidi dialect (Igbo), the other in English. It

was later translated into Central Igbo orthography by professional translators;

hence there are three versions of Achebe’s 2009 Ahịajọkụ lecture.81

In sum, the purpose and guiding principles of traditional education in Nigeria

and ‘functionalism’ and paternalism.82

It is worthy of note that both Plato’s idea of

education and Nigerian traditional education are functionalist and so, both can

complement each other. The lesson which could be drawn from this is that there

29

should be a serious interaction between Nigerian secondary education and the

Nigerian traditional education. Both must be philosophic as opined by Plato.

Ultimately, the Nigerian child is espoused with African kinship and African

communalism.

b. Islamic Education in Nigeria

The creed of Islam is believed to have been revealed to Prophet Mohammed

in Arabia during the 7th and the 8th centuries AD. Islam is an Arabic word which

means ‘Peace.’ Prophet Mohammed is believed to have received divine messages

of the Almighty Allah (God) and spread it to all people. Most Islamic learning take

place in “Madrasas” Islamic schools, which are located in the mosques, private and

special buildings. In Islamic school, the Quran, which is the holy book of Muslims,

is the main textbook of study; hence the name ‘Quranic school.’ Muslims believe

that God Himself revealed His thoughts in the Quran.

Belief in ‘Allah’ is the central principle of Islam. Islam says that there is no

other God but Allah. Islam teaches preservation of family system, charity towards

the poor, keeping moderate habits, forbidding alcoholic drinks and avoiding

fornication/adultery; it cherishes meeting acts of injustice with love. In Islam, there

is the belief that all believers are equal before Allah, and it encourages liberal alms

giving, avoidance of stealing, etc. Islam uses the Sharia Law as its criminal code to

maintain order among Muslims.

Furthermore, Islam reached West Africa in the 8th century AD. A Muslim

Scholar, Hammad Muhammad Mani with a Kanem ruler, Umme Jilmi, who ruled

between 1085-1097 AD brought Islam to Nigeria.83

Umme Jilmi accepted Islam

30

and his children continued the practice as well as scholarship. By the end of the

13th century AD, Kanem became the centre of Islamic learning. During the reign

of Mai Idris Alooma (1570-1602 AD) in Bornu, a number of Madrasas (Islamic

Schools) were established and Islam spread fast in that region.

Another important development in Islamic education in Northern Nigeria

took place during the Jihad championed by Shehu Uthman Dan Fodio in the

1880s.84

It should be noted that people of Northern Nigeria were not previously

Islamic, the Jihad and colonialism made them so. He brought about reform in Islam

and encouraged education among women by involving his own daughter. Muslim

scholars brought Islam to Yoruba land in 1830s, Islamic teaching and preaching

spread there and Ilorin became the centre of Islamic learning.85

An Islamic teacher

is called ‘Mallam’ – a ‘learned man.’ He sits with volumes of the Quran in a stool

or chair, and the pupil will sit in a semi-circle facing him. The pupils come with a

wooden slate and inkpots, and nowadays pens and papers. The Mallam recites from

the Quran and the pupils repeat after him. At times, a bright pupil leads the

recitation. Over the years Islam has spread to all parts of the north, has expanded in

the west, and however, Muslims are found in almost all parts of Nigeria.

In addition, some Muslim leaders in Nigeria felt the need to upgrade the

quality and variety of Islamic education in Nigeria. So, a school was set up in Kano

in the 1930s to train ‘Alkalis’ - Islamic judges.86

The institution was called the

Northern Province Law School. In 1947, it was renamed the School for Arabic

Studies. In 1950s, it broadened its activities to train primary school teachers and in

the 1960s, it introduced post primary courses in Arabic and Islamic Studies.87

31

Products of these schools were sent to Abdullahi Bayero College (now Bayero

University) Kano. Today (2014), some universities in Nigeria, like the University

of Ibadan, Bayero University Kano, Ahmed Bello University Zaria, etc., offer

Diploma and Bachelor of Arts courses in Arabic and Islamic Studies.

In an effort to facilitating Islamic education in Nigeria, a number of agencies

have made contributions. The Nigerian government, as well as some Islamic

organizations like Ansar-Ud-Deen Society, Ahmediyya Mission, Jamaatul

Islamiyya, Zumratu Islamiyya have established institutions where Islamic

education is taught. At present, there are several Islamic bodies that propagate

Islamic belief and Islamic education in different styles in Nigeria, namely: the

Boko Haram (terrorist) organization which believes that western education is a sin

(evil) and must be stopped, the Alshabab, the Al-Quida, the Janjaweed, etc. These

organizations pursue virtually a common front – Islamization of Nigeria, especially

through full implementation of Sharia Law and through Islamic education. It is

worthy of note that despite the claim of Boko Haram that their aim is achieving

Islamic education, it is believed that their aim is political. This is not far from the

truth as President Goodluck Jonathan in April 2013 pledged to offer those cowards

(Boko Haram) amnesty, if they showed up to say what their grievances were. But

one wonders how that will be possible because the Boko Haram members are

faceless and carry out guerrilla war.

The Boko Haram Terrorist Organization is ready to do the worst in order to

draw education back in Nigeria. The two bombings in Nyanya, Abuja; one on April

14, 2014 and the other on May 1, 2014 and the kidnapping of more than 250 (Two

32

Hundred and Fifty) female students of Government Girls’ Secondary School

Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014 by the Boko Haram show how poised the

group are to attacking innocent Nigerians. Unfortunately, as at May 20, 2014, the

American contingent and other military aid from the United Kingdom, France and

China, in alliance with Nigerian Armed Forces have not been able to rescue those

Chibok girls from their abductors. Also, in Jos, on 20, May 2014 there were two

separate bomb blasts caused by the Boko Haram. The current (2014) leader of the

Boko Haram, Abubakar Shakao threatens to attack Nigeria harder. On 22 May,

2014, the Security Council of the United Nations Organization declared the Boko

Haram an International Terrorist Organization. On the 18th

of October, 2014, the

presidential spokesman on security, Mike Omeri, announced an agreement for

cease-fire between the Nigerian Federal Government and Boko Haram. What is not

clear is whether the Boko Haram is sincere with the cease-fire? It may be a strategy

by the Boko Haram to take the Nigerian security/military unawares in their next

strike. If they are sincere, the agreement is a welcome development – as it is the

only guarantee for the release of those innocent Chibok girls and return of peace in

the whole of northeast geo-political zone of Nigeria. Nigerians have long awaited

the ceasation of insurgency and terrorism in this country. God save Nigeria!

However, one can say that Islam spread very fast in Nigeria because

Nigerian society and Islam had some things in common. For instance, both are

political – unlike Western religion in which there is a clear-cut difference between

Christianity and Politics, Islam is purely political. Note that the philosophy of pre-

colonial education in Nigeria is ‘Education for Living.’ What this means is that

33

Nigerian education should equip Nigerians with best life practices so as to live as

humans.

THE COLONIAL PERIOD

The coming of some Europeans to Nigeria with the aim of colonizing it and

externalizing European markets marked this period.

Beginning of Western Education/Christian Education in Nigeria

Visit to West Africa by European traders and explorers started as far back as

the 14th century. The first Portuguese traders arrived Lagos and Benin in 1474.88

With them occasionally came priests who did some teaching. But on somewhat

regular basis, their educational work started in Nigeria in the mid-19th century.89

Some records say that sporadic missionary activities started in Benin in 1515, when

some Roman Catholic Missionaries set up a school in the Oba’s palace for his sons

and sons of their chiefs who were converted to Christianity.90

Hence, according to

this record, through the influence of the Portuguese traders, the Roman Catholic

Missionaries were the first to set foot on Nigerian soil. They set up a seminary in

the Island of Sao Tome off the coast of Nigeria in 1571. But some other records say

that the first missionaries to come to Nigeria were the Wesleyan Methodist

Mission: and that from 1842 onwards many other missionaries came to Nigeria.91

These missionaries belonged to the two main divisions of Christianity: the Roman

Catholic and the Protestants. Within the Protestants were Wesleyan Methodist,

Church Missionary Society (CMS), the Southern Baptist Convention, and the

Church of Scotland Mission.

34

The Wesleyan Methodist Mission came to Nigeria in 1842 and started a

primary school in the town of Badagry. Later, the mission started high schools in

Lagos. The first known school (elementary) in Nigeria was established in 1843 by

Mr. and Mrs. De Graft of the Wesleyan Methodist Mission in Badagry.92

The

Church Missionary Society (present day Anglican Church) came to Nigeria in

1843, and opened schools in Badagry and spread into Yoruba land, establishing

elementary schools, secondary schools and a Teacher Training College. In August

1846, Samuel Ajayi Crowder (a missionary of the CMS) settled in Igbehin while

another missionary, Townsend, settled in Ake and built schools there. The Church

of Scotland Mission arrived in Nigeria in 1846, and soon after opened a school at

(a creek town) Calabar. The mission was encouraged by the local king in Calabar

who wanted native boys to master the Whiteman’s knowledge. The Southern

Baptist Convention came to Lagos from the United States of America and opened

an academy in 1853, spread into Yoruba and opened more schools. The Roman

Catholic Mission came to Lagos in 1860 and set up schools soon after in Badagry,

Abeokuta, Asaba, Onitsha and extended her works into Igboland. Other missions

also opened schools in southeastern part of Nigeria. Nevertheless, the Roman

Catholic Mission played the greatest role in establishing schools and education of

Nigerians during the colonial period, especially in southern Nigeria. In terms of

chronology, the missionary bodies arrived Nigeria in the following order.93

35

S/N MISSIONARY BODY YEAR OF ARRIVAL

1. Wesleyan Methodist Mission 1842

2. Church Missionary Society (CMS or Anglican Church) 1843

3. Church of Scotland Mission (United Presbyterians) 1846

4. South Baptist Convention 1853

5. Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) 1860

6. Qua Ibo Mission 1887

7. Primitive Methodist Mission 1892

8. Basel Mission No idea

It is on record that the Church Missionary Society (CMS) started some

teaching in Lokoja in 1900. Later, schools were established in Ghirko near Zaria, at

Bida (in Niger state) and in Busa. Other missions like the Sudan Interior Mission

(SIM) and the Roman Catholic Mission also opened schools in the Northern part of

Nigeria. However, the arrival of railway in Kano, in 1913, created special need for

Western education in the North. Many Christian technicians and clerks came to

manage the railway from the South. And they needed schools for their wards and

churches for worship. So, they started schools and churches in Sabongari (New

town) away from walled towns. They also opened schools at Birnin-Kebbi, Bauchi,

Maiduguri, and Dekina.

Aims of the Missionaries

The main aims of the missionaries were to convert ‘pagans’ and Muslims to

Christianity. As the conversion was much easier through education, schools were

36

established and Religion formed the main course of study. Slowly, other subjects

like Reading and Writing, Arithmetic, and Geography were taught. Schools needed

catechists, pastors, priests and so, aspirants were first taught in the elementary

schools and then the seminary. Technical schools were also opened to teach some

useful skills to converts. Generally, the missionaries did not cherish the indigenous

culture and religion of Nigerian people. Thus, they introduced Christianity and

belief in Jesus Christ and His Word, the Bible. They believed that Africa as a

whole, was a dark continent that should jettison their way of life and adapt to

Christianity-cum-Western lifestyle – a new life.

Furthermore, until 1870, the colonial government showed little interest in the

education of the Nigerian people. One of the reasons could be that the purpose of

the colonial government was to control those areas where people offered resistance

to British rule; money was needed for the success of the Indirect Rule and its

military operations, leaving very little for social services. More so, education of

Nigerians was not seen as a duty by the colonial government as that could

empower Nigerians more to be able to resist colonialism. It was between 1870 and

1881 that the colonial government made some small and irregular grants to the

three main missions: the Roman Catholic Mission, the Wesleyan Methodist

Mission, and the Church Missionary Society. A change in attitude of the

government occurred in 1882 when it passed an education ordinance.94

In the

ordinance, provision was made to give Grants-in-aid to the missions. But the grants

were low. Other features of the ordinance were the establishment of a Board of

Education, appointment of Inspectors of Education and opening of Government

37

Schools. Through these provisions, missions became partners in education with

government. However, in terms of control, the government was a more powerful

partner. In terms of inspection of the schools, a Nigerian educator, Henry Carr,

became the Sub-Inspector of schools in 1889 and was promoted to Inspector in

1892. Henry Carr advocated government control of education. But as far as the

provision of schools was concerned, missions remained more active than the

government throughout the 19th century (the colonial period). From 1952 onwards

the three regional governments of Nigeria (West, East, North and Lagos – the

political capital) started educational programmes with all seriousness.95

The main

features of the programmes was the introduction of the Universal Primary

Education (UPE).

In summary, the principal aim of missionary education was to evangelize

Nigeria through schooling. Also, because the missionaries could not penetrate the

hinterland due to harsh climate and mosquito bites, it became imperative that they

educate Nigerians who could carry on the work of evangelization into the

hinterland. They found it difficult to convert the old men and women as they were

already molded in traditional religion and culture. Therefore, the only alternative

was to catch Nigerians young; hence the introduction of Western education –

resulting in every person who went to a Christian missionary school becoming a

Christian. Again, the need for interpreters and probably Nigerians who could

represent the missionaries and help in the management of the colonial enterprise in

Nigeria prompted the establishment of missionary school (for training). Thus, the

philosophy of colonial education in Nigeria is ‘Education for New Life.’

38

THE POST-COLONIAL PERIOD

Education after Independence

Nigeria won her independence on October 1, 1960. The greatest gift of

Nigerian independence was the Ashby Report which was aimed at expansion of

education at all levels, particularly at the university level to produce man-power for

management and administrative post.96

Actually, the Ashby Commission was

formed in April, 1959 to conduct investigation into Nigeria’s need in the field of

primary, post-primary school certificates and most especially higher education over

the next twenty years (1960-1980).97

The Ashby Report was titled “Investment in

Education” and was published in 1960. The effect of the Ashby Report helped to

speed up the educational development plans initiated by the regional governments.

And the creation of 12 states in 1967 gave further impetus to education, although

the Nigeria-Biafra War had some slowing down effects. Moreover, the Ashby

Commission was of special importance for three reasons:

1. it was the first in history of education in Nigeria that Nigerians themselves were

represented by the Minister of Education and the Federal Cabinet decided to

examine the future of higher education for a long period of time;

2. it was the first time that combined team of three Nigerian, three British and three

American educators were to pool their resources together to best advise Nigeria in

order to move her education forward;

3. it was the first official comprehensive review of higher education in Nigeria

undertaken by a team of experts.98

39

The Ashby Commission was made up of Eric Ashby (Chairman), K.O. Dike,

R.G. Gustavson, H.W. Hannah, Keshim Ibrahim, F. Keppel, J.F. Lockwood, Sanya

Onabamiro, and G.E Watts. The Commission was the First National Developent

Plan in Nigeria.

After the creation of twelve states in Nigeria, the pattern of education

administration changed. States and Local Government Education Authorities set up

by the Ministry of Education became responsible for education through the Public

Education Edict of 1970. Thus, many state governments in collaboration with

several communities and missionaries established very many secondary schools in

Nigeria, in the 1970s. Also, the oil boom of 1970s helped Nigeria to make greater

improvement in education and the 1970-1974 Second National Development Plan

allotted a huge sum of N277.786 million to education. However, it was in the Third

National Development Plan of 1975-1980 that steps were taken to bring about

greater explosion in Nigerian education.99

It is important to note that the

philosophy of the post-colonial education in Nigeria is ‘Education for Self-

Realization.’

History of Secondary Education in Nigeria

In Southern Nigeria (comprising today’s South-East, South-West and the

South-South geo-political zones), the very growing population of children of

school age that stormed available primary schools created an impression and great

eagerness in the missionaries and the colonial government that there were suitable

number of pupils for secondary education in Nigeria100

; hence, they started

40

responding to the need. The first grammar school (in Nigeria) was opened in Lagos

by the Church Missionary Society in 1859.101

In 1895, the United Presbyterian

Church, at Calabar, built a Catechists’ Seminary School, a Teacher Training

College, a Grammar School and a Technical College all-in-one which later became

Hope Waddell Institution in 1896.

The development of secondary education in southern Nigeria was based on

the efforts of the colonial government, private organizations, communities, and the

missionaries, especially the Roman Catholic Church. In Northern Nigeria, the

region was divided based on religion: the predominately Muslim area and non-

Muslim area. In the Muslim dominated area, Western education was seen as the

key to the Whiteman’s power to convert the Muslims to Christianity/Western

lifestyle. As a result, only a few Mallams and Emirs supported the colonial

government to set up secondary schools for their sons. A good example of such

school was the Hanns Vischer’s Nassarawa School. But by the end of 1915,

provincial schools were established in all the Northern Province. In the Christian

dominated area, missionaries were free to establish secondary schools. All mission

schools had common allegiance to Christian doctrine and so, they operated

curricula centred on English Language, Religion, and Arithmetic, commonly

referred to as the 3Rs. It cannot be over emphasized that by 1879, there were three

secondary schools (in Nigeria): the CMS Grammar School built in 1859, the

Wesleyan Boys’ High School built in 1876, and the St. Gregory’s School in

1879.102

With the amalgamation of Southern and Northern Protectorates, in 1914,

Lord Lugard proposed three types of secondary education: Provincial schools, the

41

Rural Schools, and Non-Governmental Schools. Between 1919 and 1940, there was

substantial growth in secondary education which was influenced by the report of

Phelps-Strokes Commission, set up by the American Baptist Foreign Missionary

between 1920-1926 to study the needs and resources of West, South and Equatorial

Africa vis-à-vis the quality of education provided. However, the economic

depression of 1930s had some negative effects on Nigeria’s secondary education.

The 1948 Richard’s Constitution divided Nigeria into three regions

(Northern, Eastern, and Western regions) and gave them the power to legislate on

education. As such, each region was to determine its education (type and place). In

the Western and Eastern regions, for instance, secondary education that time was

five years while in the Northern region, it was six years. Also, secondary education

curriculum was in line with the requirements for School Certificate Examination of

Cambridge and Oxford.103

That time, technical secondary education was at infancy

stage.

The decade, 1960-1970 witnessed a rapid expansion in secondary education

in Nigeria due to the gains of Ashby Commission Report of 1960. However, the

1966 military take-over which resulted in Civil-War was a setback on Nigeria’s

secondary education. Meanwhile, in 1966, the regions were divided into states and

secondary education was put into the Residual List and each state had to enact its

own educational laws (edicts) according to its secondary educational demand. In

the aftermath of the Nigeria-Biafra War, in a bid to foster national unity, the

Federal Military Government of Nigeria established Unity (secondary) Schools

known as Federal Government Colleges, one in each state of the Federation.

42

Nigerian youths gain admission into the schools through a nationally administered

Common Entrance Examination. The various kinds of secondary schools in Nigeria

between the colonial days and 1980s were Secondary Grammar School, Grant-

Aided Secondary Schools, Private Secondary Schools, Secondary Modern Schools,

Secondary Commercial Schools, Junior High Schools, Comprehensive High

Schools, International School Ibadan, Federal Government Colleges, and Special

Secondary Schools.104

Between 1980 and 2014, we have contemporary secondary

schools like: Special Science Schools, Private Secondary Schools, Army-Day

Secondary Schools, Schools for the Disabled, etc.

Furthermore, in 1954, four governments in British West African Countries

(Nigeria, Ghana, Serra Leone, and the Gambia) constituted the West African

Examinations Council (WAEC) to replace Cambridge and Oxford Examination for

O’level students.105

The WAEC has the sole responsibility of conducting the West

African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). The certificate from

WASSCE is called the West African Senior School Certificate (WASSC) or Senior

School Certificate (SSC). WASSC is a prerequisite qualification for admission into

tertiary institutions/universities in Nigeria, and in other countries that make up

WAEC.

In the year 2000, the National Examinations Council (NECO) was formed as

Nigeria’s internal examination board to conduct another Senior School Certificate

Examination (SSCE), as alternative to WAEC. The researcher of this project you

are reading was among the set that took the very first NECO-organized Senior

School Certificate Examination in year 2000. Technical secondary schools write

43

examinations conducted by the National Business and Technology Examinations

Board (NABTEB). The examinations are conducted in two folds each: one in

May/June for students/candidates yet in secondary school and the other in

November/December for private candidates. Note that the certificates (WASSC,

NECO, and NABTEB) are equivalent.

By the Decree No.2 of 1978 amended as Decree No. 33 of 1989, the Joint

Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) was established to conduct

matriculation examinations (for secondary school leavers, others) for all degree-

awarding institutions in Nigeria.106

And POLYJAMB was established to conduct

matriculation examinations for all polytechnics and colleges of education in

Nigeria. Today (2014), JAMB conducts the Unified Tertiary Matriculation

Examinations (UTME) for candidates aspiring for admission into any tertiary

institution in Nigeria, comprising Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of

Education, and the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna.

Higher Education in Nigeria

The first institution of higher education in Nigeria was the Higher College,

Yaba, established in 1934.107

The university college Ibadan came into being in

1948 and was affiliated to the University of London. On the recommendations of

the Ashby Commission, other universities were opened in early 1960, namely the

University of Nigeria, Nsukka (Nigeria’s premier university), Ahmed Bello

University, Zaria, the University of Lagos, and the University of Ife. University

College Ibadan was raised to the status of university in 1962. Technical and

vocational education, science education, adult education and special education

44

were also established between 1908 and 1977.108

Between 1980 and today (2014),

many more higher institutions were established including private ones. However,

the supervision and control of all about education and establishment of private

schools in Nigeria are in the hand of the government. It should be noted that when

we talk of higher education in Nigeria, it includes the Universities which offer

Diploma, First Degree and Higher Degree; Polytechnics which offer Ordinary

National Diploma (OND), Higher National Diploma (HND); and Colleges of

Education which offer Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE). The philosophy of

higher education in Nigeria is ‘Education for Leadership.’

NIGERIAN EDUCATION POLICY, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Certain historical antecedents had impact on how educational policies were

formulated and implemented in Nigeria. Nigeria was formed through the

amalgamation of British Colonies: Northern Protectorate, Southern Protectorate,

and Lagos Colony in 1914 (said earlier). The colonial administrators introduced

Indirect Rule Policy through Lord Lugard’s Constitution. The Indirect Rule Policy

recognized the existing traditional political structure in pre-colonial Nigeria. They

made use of the Emirates, Empires and kingdoms as obtainable in the North and in

the West. East was exceptional because Indirect Rule did not work out in Igboland

in spite of the introduction of warrant chiefs. So, the Indirect Rule Policy

recognized Islamic education in the North thereby preventing the works of

Christian Missionaries there. This caused the gap between the north and the south

regions of Nigeria. It has had further consequences on the planning of education in

Nigeria. For instance, it created room for several educational policies such as the

45

quota system, the educationally disadvantaged area and the educationally less

disadvantaged area policies, etc. Those policies were aimed at reducing the gap in

North-South level of educational growth and development. The colonial

government adopted British (Western) form of education in Nigeria, and so,

introduced the following school systems: Primary, Secondary, Sixth Form, and

Higher Education.109

It is important to note that the adoption of English form of

education for Nigeria creates a connection between Plato’s education thought and

Nigerian education because the whole of Western education is rooted in Platonism.

Also, the Colonial administrators managed education through the use of

several education ordinances and education codes or laws such as the 1882, 1887,

1916, 1919, 1926, 1948, and 1952, etc., education ordinances, laws/codes.110

Let us

look at these ordinances and the philosophies behind them.

i. The 1882 Education Ordinance

Education Legislation began in Nigeria with the introduction of the 1882

Ordinance for British West African territories: Lagos, Gold Coast (Ghana), Sierra

Leone, and the Gambia. Some provisions of the ordinance were: annual evaluation

of pupils, methods of granting teacher certificates, a system of grant-in-aid and

establishment of a general board of education with the power to establish local

boards; award of grants for organization and discipline with special grants for

school which had high percentage of passes and high standard of excellence; a

capitation grant for each subject; and a capitation grant in proportion of the average

attendance at school. A close look at this 1882 education ordinance shows that its

46

philosophy was ‘Education for All’; hence Education as a Right of the Nigerian

Citizenry.

ii. The 1887 Education Ordinance

As a result of the separation of Lagos Colony from the Gold Coast (Ghana)

in 1886, it became imperative that a purely Nigerian ordinance be enacted, which

was done in 1887. It created an Education Board and also stipulated rates and

conditions for the award of grants, standard of examination, classification of

teachers’ certificates and the board’s power to grant scholarship for secondary

education. It also entrenched freedom of religious instruction in schools. Note that

this was the very first purely Nigerian education ordinance. Thus, the philosophy of

the 1887 education ordinance was ‘Education for Self-Consciousness and

Development’; hence the separation of Lagos colony from Gold Coast.

iii. The 1916 Education Ordinance

The 1916 education ordinance was approved on 21 and 24 December 1916.

It was as a result of Lord Lugard’s attempt to cater for the entire country as

education was based on good character and usefulness to both the individual and

the community. This ordinance paved way for the increased financial participation

by government, full co-operation between the government and the missions and

emphasized government’s firm control of education. The philosophy behind this

education ordinance of 1916 was ‘Education through Partnership;’ hence the co-

operation of the government and the missions.

47

iv. The Amended Education Ordinance of 1919

This amended ordinance No. 8 of 1919 gave more powers to the Inspectors

by allowing them to inspect any school, whether assisted or non-assisted. It also

empowered education board, upon the recommendation of Inspectors, to close any

non-performing school. The philosophy behind the education ordinance of 1919

was ‘Education for Good Result.’

v. The 1926 Education Ordinance

In 1920, the Phelps-Stroke Commission on education in Africa was formed

and its terms of reference included:

a. to inquire into existing work in each of the areas to be studied;

b. to investigate the educational needs of the people in their social, hygienic, and

economic conditions;

c. to ascertain the extent to which these educational needs were being met; and

d. to make available the full result of the study.

Furthermore, the Phelps-Stroke Commission came up with the following

recommendations after their research:

a. establishment of advisory boards of education that will assist in supervision of

educational institutions;

b. adaptation of formal education to local conditions;

c. study of vernacular in schools;

d. thorough supervision and inspection of schools;

e. education of women and girls; and

f. emphasis on religious training and moral instruction.111

48

These recommendations of the Phelps-Stroke Commission spurred the British

colonial administration to demonstrate increased interest in African education. And

the 1926 Education Ordinance was mainly based on the Phelps-Strokes

Commission’s recommendations. The 1926 Education Ordinance stipulated the

following:

a. making registration of teachers a pre-condition for teaching in any school in

southern Nigeria;

b. disallowing the opening of schools without the approval of the Director of

Education and the Board of education;

c. authorization of closure of any school which was conducted in a manner which

was in conflict with the interest of the people of the host community;

d. specialization of the functions and duties of supervisors or mission school

inspectors;

e. expanding and strengthening the existing Board of Education by including the

Director and Deputy Director of education, the Assistant Director, ten

representatives of the missions and other educational agencies; and

f. regulating the minimum pay for teachers employed in assisted schools.

A good look at the 1926 Education Ordinance conveys its philosophy as strive for

quality, all-gender education through efficient personnel; hence ‘Education through

Division of Labour.’

vi. The 1948 Education Ordinance

The reports of the Director of Education, who was appointed in 1944 to

review a ten-year plan, and that of Sidney Phillipson, on the procedure for

49

assessing Grants-in-aid in 1948, were the bases for the promulgation of the 1948

education ordinance. This ordinance decentralized educational administration. It

created a central board of education and four regional boards, that is, those of East,

West, North and Lagos. Also, it recommended the formulation of local education

committees and local education authority. The philosophy of 1948 education

ordinance was ‘Standardization of Education at the Grass-Root.’

vii. The 1952 Education Ordinance

The education ordinance of 1952 was created to help each of the three

regions (Eastern, Western and Northern) to develop its educational policies and

systems. In this ordinance, membership of the central board and the regional boards

were modified while the colonial board was abolished. It emphasized the overall

responsibility of the central government. The philosophy of the 1952 education

ordinance is ‘Education through the People’; hence the abolition of the colonial

board.

viii. The 1955 Regional Educational Laws

In 1954, a constitution was drawn and Nigeria became a federation of three

regions consisting of the Eastern, the Western, the Northern and Lagos. Each

region was mandated to make laws for itself and its citizens. This all important

constitution contained three lists:

a. Exclusive Legislative List, which contained items which the federal legislature

or parliament could make laws;

b. Concurrent Legislative List, which consisted of those items upon which both the

federal and regional legislatures could legislate; and

50

c. Residual Legislative List, which comprised items which were within the

exclusive legislative competence of the regions.

Thus, the regions exploited this constitutional provisions and made regional

laws. For example, Western Region’s Education Law of 1955, the Northern

Region’s Education Law of 1956 and the Lagos’ Education Law of 1957 were

because of the 1954 constitution. The philosophy of the regional education laws of

1955 was ‘Education for Priority Purposes and Satisfaction of Needs’; hence some

legislations were more suitable for different levels of government - it pursued

education through political conventions.

ix. The Ashby Commission of 1959

In April 1959, the Federal Government of Nigeria constituted the Ashby

Commission to investigate and report Nigeria’s manpower needs for a period of

twenty years (1960-1980) as mentioned earlier. The commission, among other

things, reported the following (after independence in 1960):

a. the imbalance between one level of education and another;

b. limited admission opportunities for primary school leavers and few teachers

were qualified and certified;

c. that Nigerian education was parochial and literary; and

d. imbalance in the development of education between North and South.

Therefore, the Ashby Commission recommended the following:

1. upgrading of the Ibadan University College to a full-fledged university;

2. establishing of three other Universities at Nsukka, Ife and Zaria; and

51

3. the establishment of the Nigerian Universities Commission to maintain uniform

standard among the Nigerian universities.

It is important to note that the philosophy of the Ashby Commission and its

recommendation was ‘Education for Self-Realization and Leadership.’

x. The Education Edict of 1966-1976

The Federal Military Government in Nigeria enacted Decree No. 14 of 1967,

with which it created 12 states out of the 4 existing regions; West, East, Mid-West,

North and Lagos the Federal Capital. In 1967, the states were increased to 19,

thereby making the number of state legislatures increase to 20 (i.e., 19 states plus

Lagos). Therefore, each state promulgated edicts for education regulation,

provision and maintenance. Each state was vested with power to amend its

educational laws also.112

Consequently, all the states’ edicts had some common

features. For instance, all the states entrenched in their state educational edicts the

following:

a. government take-over of schools from individuals, missions, and voluntary

organizations;

b. establishment of State Schools Management Board; and

c. unified teaching service.

The philosophy of these education edicts of 1966-1976 was ‘Education for

Effective teaching and Learning in Nigeria.’

xi. The Education Laws of the Second Republic of 1979-1983

The first era of military rule (1966-1976) in Nigeria was followed by the

Second Republic, which had Alhaji Shehu Shagari as the executive president.

52

During that period, the 1979 constitution was the legal basis of education in

Nigeria. The objectives of education as provided by chapter II, section 18,

subsections 1-3 of the 1979 Constitution were:

a. The government policies shall be directed towards ensuring equal and adequate

educational opportunities at all levels;

b. The government shall promote science and technology;

c. The government shall strive to provide: Free, Compulsory and Universal Primary

Education (UPE), Free secondary education and Free adult literacy programme.113

The 1979 Constitution put education in the Concurrent Legislative List making the

provision of education the responsibility of the three tiers of government – the

federal, state, and local governments.114

However, the federal government had

more power than the states in the area of primary, professional, technical schools

and federal universities. But, the states had control of secondary schools and state

universities and other state tertiary institutions in such state. The philosophy of the

School Republic Laws of 1979-1983 is ‘Education for Human Development in

Nigeria.’

xii. The Education Edicts of 1983-1999

After the coup d’etat of 1983 led by General Muhammadu Buhari and other

coup d’etats that followed, several decrees were promulgated by the Federal

Military Government to manage and regulate education in Nigeria. Examples: the

Decree No. 20 of 1986 which changed school calendar in Nigeria, from January to

December, to from October to September; and Decree No. 26 of 1988 which

prohibited the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) from participating in

53

trade union activities.115

Note that the 1981 and 1998 editions of National Policy on

Education adopted the 1977 edition’s resolutions. A very close look at the

education edicts of 1983-1999 shows that its philosophy was ‘Education for

National Unity in Diversity’; hence the use of one education calendar.

xiii. The Education Policy of 1999-2004

Nigeria had four editions of curriculum conferences and national policy on

education, namely 1977, 1981, 1998, and 2004. The 2004 education policy is the

fourth edition and the last edition of the National Policy on Education in Nigeria,

which has been in use from 2004-2014 (present time). However, there is every

hope that the Nigerian National Conference which started in March 2014, to end in

May, 2014, held in National Judicial Centre, Abuja will review the Nigerian 2004

education policy. This is because one thinks that 10 years (2004 – 2014) is enough

time for Nigerian Educational Policy to be reviewed. This 2004 education policy is

entrenched in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Decree of 1999,

chapter II, section 18, which stipulated the following as the aims and objectives of

Nigerian education:

a. the inculcation of national consciousness and unity;

b. the inculcation of right type of values and attitudes for the survival of the

individual in the Nigerian society; and

c. the acquisition of appropriate skills, and development of mental, physical and

social abilities and competencies as equipment for the individual to live in and

contribute to the development of his society.116

54

The philosophy of the 2004 education policy is ‘Education for Values and

Development of Human Potentials’; hence it is utilitarian and teleological. By and

large, the utmost importance attached to education in Nigeria was clearly

underscored in all the education ordinances, laws, codes and national policies on

education as explained in this research work. Thus, the various governments of

Nigeria in these efforts adopted education as an “instrument par excellence” for

effective individual and national development.

Nigerian System of Education; the 6-5-4, the 6-3-3-4, the 9-3-4, Nomadic

Education, Distance and Open Learning Education

There is no doubt that Nigeria has witnessed a series of educational systems

since her birth. Immediately after independence in 1960, there were lots of ills and

shortcomings in Nigerian educational system. This was partly because Nigerian

education was based on the British educational system which did not pave way for

yearning needs, interests and aspirations of the Nigerian society.117

That gave birth

to those curriculum conferences and National Policies on Education in 1977, 1981,

1998, and 2004 that informed Nigeria’s education systems past and present.

The oldest system of education in Nigeria was the 6-5-4 system. That means

6 years of primary education, 5 years of secondary education and 4 years of

university education. In 1982, Nigeria switched to the American system of 6 years

primary, 3 years of junior secondary, 3 years of senior secondary, and 4 years

university grades; hence the 6-3-3-4 system.118

Today, the Nigerian government

has come up with another system of education – the 9-3-4 system. It was

introduced in Nigeria in year 2000. However, it is at its trial stage. The 9-3-4

55

system of education means that the 3 years of junior secondary education is added

to the 6 years primary education, making what is referred to as Universal Basic

Education (UBE), 3 years of senior secondary education (i.e., SSI through SS3),

and then 4 years of university education. Universal Basic Education has been

described as a foundation for acquisition of further knowledge, skills, and

competencies in diverse fields. It involves a variety of formal and non-formal

educational activities. The objectives of UBE released in year 2000 by the Federal

Government of Nigeria (FGN) read:

a. development in the entire citizenry a strong consciousness for education and a

strong commitment to its vigorous promotion;

b. the provision of free universal basic education for every Nigerian child of

school-going age; and

c. ensuring the acquisition of the appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy,

manipulative, communicative and life skills, as well as the ethical, moral and civic

values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning.119

So, Universal Basic Education includes Primary Education (6 years) and

Junior Secondary Education (3 years). Junior Secondary School Certificate is

awarded after 3 years of junior secondary school. But that does not displace the

First School Leaving Certificate issued after 6 years of primary school. It is

expected that a child in Nigeria finishes primary school at 12 years and finishes

secondary school at 18.120

It cannot be over-emphasized that in Nigeria we have the pre-primary

education (Nursery/Kindergarten) but it is not clearly represented in the 6-3-3-4 or

56

9-3-4 systems of education. Perhaps, this is so because the Nursery/Kindergarten

schools are mostly provided by private schools and not government or public

schools. The duration of most pre-primary (Nursery/Kindergarten) education is 3

years, after which the pupil enters elementary one (primary school). However,

some nursery/kindergarten educations start earlier as day care.

Nomadic Education in Nigeria

Nomadic education is a planned programme introduced by the federal

government of Nigeria to ensure education for all. The constant move of the

nomads, in search of green land for their cattle makes it difficult to integrate their

wards into conventional schools. So, after independence, both the States and the

Federal Government made concerted efforts to settle the nomads, like the effort by

General Gowon in 1970s to settle the herdsmen in some states of the federation.

During General Babangida’s regime, a more serious approach was given to

nomadic education. Thus, on November 1st, 1988, the programme was launched

and the then Minister of Education, Jubril Aminu, inaugurated a thirty-two-man

National Advisory Committee on Nomadic Education headed by Colonel Bello

Khaliel, and nomadic education became law in the Decree No. 41 of December

1989 and National Commission for Nomadic Education formed.121

The aims and

objectives of nomadic education in Nigeria are:

a. to expose the nomadic child to formal education;

b. to inculcate the spirit of humanity to the nomadic child and make him/her realize

himself/herself as a member of the Nigerian society;

57

c. to enable the nomadic child to take part in the development of his immediate

environment and the country as a whole;

d. to make the nomadic child improve his/her living conditions, thus eliminating

the hardships and constraints in his/her life;

e. to help harmonize the nomadic child’s techniques of herdsmanship and animal

management;

f. to help the nomadic child to appreciate moral and religious practices;

g. to assist the nomadic child to develop rapidly, fully, physically, and

intellectually so as to be able to cope with the demands of the contemporary world;

and

h. to help the nomadic child to develop initiative.122

Note that the Nigerian system of education has provision for Open and

Distance Learning (like the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), based in Kaduna,

which awards Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE)); and Special Education for

learners with special needs like the disabled, for instance, the school for the blind,

deaf and dumb, etc.123

Through an assessment of all these Nigerian Education policies and their

underlying qualities, it becames clear that Nigeria has not pursued them to the

letter. Indeed, Nigeria has derailed in terms of poor implementation of those

policies. This has caused the absence of ‘trained’ products in Nigeria. The purpose

of this review and historical survey of education, in Nigeria, to Plato’s theory of

knowledge is to demonstrate that the Socratic invitation to self-examination is

imperative for Nigeria – seeing that those beautiful policies lack substance. By and

58

large, the choice of this topic:” Plato's Theory of Knowledge and its Implications

for Nigerian Secondary Education” is informed by an attempt to bridge the

knowledge gap existing with reference to existing literature on Plato's theory of

knowledge in relation to Nigerian education, especially Nigerian secondary

education to find how useful that could be in standardizing it (secondary education

in Nigeria).

59

ENDNOTES

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I. Ogboru, “Educational Policy and Standards: A Key to a Productive

Economy.” http://ilorin.info/papers/publication/SECONDARY-EDUCATION-IN-

NIGERIA. pdf. Retrieved 5th October, 2014.

61.

Nwafor Emmanuel, The Life Magazine. 5th

edition (May 2012-May 2013),

5.

62.

Samuel Amaele, Understanding the Philosophy of Education (Ibadn:

Bounty Press, 2007), 188.

63.

Samuel Amaele, Moral Values in Nigerian Education: Issues, Problems

and Prospects (Ibadan: Bounty Press, 2007), xv.

64.

Regina Eya, Child Abuse and Neglect: A Nigerian Perspective (Enugu:

Sages Publications Nig., 2002), 13.

65.

Regina Eya, Child Abuse and Neglect: A Nigerian Perspective, 20.

66.

Regina Eya, Child Psychology: An Introduction with a Chapter on

Cloning (Enugu: Auto-Century Publishing Company Limited, 2003), 141.

67.

A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria

(Ibadan: De Ayo Publications, 1980), 1-4.

68

. A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria,

1-4.

69.

A. Babs Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria (London: Gearge

Allein and Unwin, 1974), 20.

70.

A. Babs Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria, 20.

71.

A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria

(Ibadan: De Ayo Publications, 1980), 1-11.

64

72. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (London: Heinemann, 1958), 5.

73.

Elechi Amadi, The Concubine (Harlow: Heinemann, 1996), 1-216.

74.

Cyprian Ekwensi, An African Night’s Entertainment, 3rd edition (Ibadan:

African Universities Press, 2007), 1-152.

75.

Festus C. Okafor, Africa at the Crossroad (New York: Vintage Press,

1974), 1-20.

76.

C.O. Odo and F.E. Ede, History of Education in Nigeria: Traditional,

Islamic & Western-Type Perspectives (Lagos: Merit International Publications,

2011), 112-113.

77.

Chris Duru, “A Citation on the 1980 Ahịajọkụ Lecture.” (Owerri: Culture

Division Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Imo State, 1980), 1.

78.

Chris Duru, “A Citation on the 1980 Ahịajọkụ Lecture,” 1.

79.

Bede Nwoye, 1980 Ahịajọkụ Lecture: “Plant and Food in Igboland.”

(Owerri: Culture Division Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Imo

State, 1980), 4-8.

80.

Anya Oko Anya, 1982 Ahịajọkụ Lecture: “The Ecology and Socio-

Biology of Igbo Cultural and Political Development.” (Owerri: Culture Division

Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Imo State, 1982), 1-4.

81.

Virgy Anohu, Memorial Lecture: “Professor Donatus I. Nwoga and the

Development of African Literature.” (Nsukka: Institute of African Studies,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka, April 15, 2013), 22-23.

82.

A. Babs Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria (Ibadan: NPS

Educational Publications Ltd., 2002), 2.

83.

C.U. Nkekelonye, History of Education Ancient and Modern (Nsukka:

University Trust Publishers, 2005), 1-11.

84.

C.U. Nkekelonye, History of Education Ancient and Modern, 1-11.

85.

C.U. Nkekelonye, History of Education Ancient and Modern, 1-11.

86.

C.U. Nkekelonye, History of Education Ancient and Modern, 1-11.

87.

C.U. Nkekelonye, History of Education Ancient and Modern, 1-11.

65

88. C.O. Odo and F.E. Ede, History of Education in Nigeria: Traditional,

Islamic & Western-Type Perspectives (Lagos: Merit International Publications,

2011), 143.

89.

C.U. Nkekelonye, History of Education Ancient and Modern, 1-11.

90.

A. Babs Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria (London: George

Allein and Unwin, 1974), 73-74.

91.

A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria

(Ibadan: De Ayo Publications, 1980), 11.

92.

A. Babs Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria (London: George

Allein and Unwin, 1974), 82.

93.

C.U. Nkekelonye, History of Education Ancient and Modern, 1-11.

94.

C.O. Odo and F.E. Ede, History of Education in Nigeria: Traditional,

Islamic & Western-Type Perspectives (Lagos: Merit International Publications,

2011), 14-27.

95.

A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria

(Ibadan: De Ayo Publications, 1980), 14-27.

96.

A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria,

26.

97.

A. Babs Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria (London: George

Allein and Unwin, 1974), 152.

98.

A. Babs Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria, 152.

99.

A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria

(Ibadan: De Ayo Publications, 1980), 28-28.

100.

O.E. Abdullahi, “Secondary Education in Nigeria.”

http://ilorin.info/papers/publications/SECONDARY-EDUCATION-

IN NIGERIA.pdf. Retrieved 15 March, 2014, 1-10.

101.

O.E. Abdullahi, “Secondary Education in Nigeria.”

http://ilorin.info/papers/publications/SECONDARY-EDUCATION-IN-

NIGERIA.pdf. Retrieved 15 March, 2014, 1-10.

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102. O.E. Abdullahi, “Secondary Education in Nigeria.”

http://ilorin.info/papers/pu blications/SECONDARY-EDUCATION-IN-

NIGERIA.pdf. Retrieved 15 March, 2014, 1-10.

103.

O.E. Abdullahi, “Secondary Education in Nigeria.”

http://ilorin.info/papers/publications/SECONDARY-EDUCATION-IN-

NIGERIA.pdf. Retrieved 15 March, 2014, 1-10.

104.

O.E. Abdullahi, “Secondary Education in Nigeria.”

http://ilorin.info/papers/publications/SECONDARY-EDUCATION-IN-

NIGERIA.pdf Retrieved 15 March, 2014, 1-10.

105.

O.E. Abdullahi, “Secondary Education in Nigeria.”

http://ilorin.info/papers/publications/SECONDARY-EDUCATION-IN-

NIGERIA.pdf Retrieved 15 March, 2014, 1-10.

106.

O.E. Abdullahi, “Secondary Education in Nigeria.”

http://ilorin.info/papers/publications/SECONDARY-EDUCATION-IN-

NIGERIA.pdf Retrieved 15 March, 2014, 1-10.

107. A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria

(Ibadan: De Ayo Publications, 1980), 30.

108.

A.S. Thakur and A.N. Ezenne, A Short History of Education in Nigeria,

30.

109. Martins Fabunmi, “Historical Analysis of Educational Policy

Formulation in Nigeria: Implications for Educational Planning and Policy.”

International Journal of African American Studies. Volume iv (No. 2, July 2005),

2.

110. Martins Fabunmi, “Historical Analysis of Educational Policy

Formulation in Nigeria: Implications for Educational Planning and Policy.”

International Journal of African American Studies. Volume iv (No. 2, July 2005),

2.

111.

I.O. Osokaya, History and Policy of Nigerian Education in World

Perspective (Ibadan: AMD Publishers, 2002), 1-13.

112.

Martins Fabunmi, “Historical Analysis of Educational Policy

Formulation in Nigeria: Implications for Educational Planning and Policy.”

International Journal of African American Studies. Volume iv (No. 2, July 2005),

5-6.

67

113. Martins Fabunmi, “Historical Analysis of Educational Policy

Formulation in Nigeria: Implications for Educational Planning and Policy.”

International Journal of African American Studies. Volume iv (No. 2, July 2005),

5-6.

114. Martins Fabunmi, “Historical Analysis of Educational Policy

Formulation in Nigeria: Implications for Educational Planning and Policy.”

International Journal of African American Studies. Volume iv (No. 2, July 2005),

5-6.

115. Martins Fabunmi, “Historical Analysis of Educational Policy Formulation

in Nigeria: Implications for Educational Planning and Policy.” International

Journal of African American Studies. Volume iv (No. 2, July 2005), 5-6.

116. Martins Fabunmi, “Historical Analysis of Educational Policy

Formulation in Nigeria: Implications for Educational Planning and Policy.”

International Journal of African American Studies. Volume iv (No. 2, July 2005),

5-6.

117. B.A Adeyemi et al, “An Overview of Educational Issues in Nigeria:

Thoughts and Reflections.” JEP/e Journal of Education Policy 2012, http://www.4.

nau.edu/cee/jep/journal.aspx?id-505 Retrieved 18 January 2014.

118. Dayo Odukoya, “Formulation and Implementation of Educational

Policies in Nigeria.”http://www.slideshare.net/ernwaca/formulation-and-

implementation-of-education-policies-in-nigeria. Retrieved 20th December, 2013;

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1102/nigeria-EDUCATIONAL-

SYSTEM-OVERVIEW.html. Retrieved 10th

December, 2013.

119. Federal Government of Nigeria, Implementation Guidelines for Universal

Basic Education (UBE) Programme (Abuja: Federal Ministry of Education, 2000),

22.

120. The International Association of Universities and Association of African

Universities, Guide to Higher Education in Africa, 4th edition (Palgrove:

MacMillan, 2007), 391-420.

121. Federal Government of Nigeria, National Commission for Nomadic

Education, Decree No. 41 of December 12, 1989 (Lagos: Government Printers

1989). 1-4.

122. M.N. Lar, Principles and Methods of Teaching: Application to Nomadic

(Jos: Fab Educational Books, 1997), 11-12.

123. B.A Adeyemi et al, “An Overview of Educational Issues in Nigeria:

Thoughts and Reflections.” JEP/e Journal of Education Policy 2012.

http://www.4.nau.edu/cee/jep/journal.aspx?id-505 Retrieved 18 January, 2014.

68

CHAPTER THREE

PLATO’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

1. Plato’s Background

Plato’s theory of knowledge cannot be understood properly without

understanding the setting which he came from, and where his works/dialogues

were framed. Plato was born in Athens to a noble family in 428/27BC and he died

in 347BC. His father’s name was Ariston and his mother’s name was Perictone.

Plato was born in the year after the death of the great Athenian, Pericles. The name

“Plato” was a nickname meaning “broad shoulders.” Plato’s real name was

Aristocles.

Plato’s family was aristocratic and distinguished: his father’s side claimed

descent from the god, Poseidon, and his mother’s side was related to the Lawgiver,

Solon (630-560BC).1 Less creditably, Plato’s mother’s close relatives, Critias and

Charmides were among the thirty tyrants who seized power in Athens, after the

Peloponnesian war and ruled briefly until the restoration of democracy in 403BC.

While Plato was still very young, his father died and his mother married

Pyrilampes, a friend of the great Athenian statesman, Pericles. Thus, Plato became

very familiar with Athenian politics from childhood and was expected to go into

politics as a career. But, he was horrified by many political events of his time,

especially the unjust execution of Socrates, his master in 399BC. Even Plato’s

boyhood and youth were passed in the stress of the Peloponnesian war (431-

404BC) in which all the cities in Greece took part and which ended in the crushing

defeat of Athens. Consequently, he turned to Philosophy believing that only

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education could rescue mankind from civil war and political uproars and provides a

sound foundation for ethics and politics.2

Four basic factors influenced Plato’s philosophy, namely Socrates,

Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and the Athenian society, Socrates’ influence was the

greatest.3 Socrates was Plato’s master. Socrates was about 40 years when Plato was

born. Plato was profoundly affected by the life and death of Socrates.

Heraclitus (504BC) influenced Plato through his view that there is nothing

permanent in the universe. Everything in the world changes and those changes are

governed by laws; hence the theory of constant state of flux. Plato accepted

Heraclitus’ philosophy of constant state of flux, but argued that permanent, stable,

and real knowledge could be attainable in the world of reality. Pythagoras of

Samos (Italy) (571-497BC) gave vision to Plato’s thought about the universal. He

combined mathematics and mysticism very successfully. The popular Pythagoras’

Theorem is attributed to him. He described reality and the universe in terms of

numbers. He also discovered and expressed musical notes in numerical ratio. Plato

derived his interest in Mathematics and Universals from Pythagoras. He believed

that the universals had independent existence of their own. Plato thought that the

study of mathematics was a necessary introduction to philosophy and it was said

that he expelled, from his academy, students who had difficulty with mathematical

concepts.4

Again, Plato’s works/dialogues were a natural product of Ancient Athens,

which seemed to be a very small city and where there was a crowd of the most

active-minded people that has ever been gathered together. Athens can only be

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compared with perhaps the city of Florence of the Renaissance. In Athens,

everybody of any note was known, at any rate by sight and reputation by everyone

else.5 Life was lived much more out-doors than indoors. Boys and men of rich

classes spent much of their time in the gymnasium, which was a center for

conversation and athletics.6 There was no printing. Although, books were written

and made public, most teachings were done orally. Athens was actually the

medium of the intellectual culture of the Greek people. Athens was also a centre for

intense political life.7 It flourished for about 200 years; from the middle of the 6th

century BC to the 4th century BC. Athens, then, assumed a status like Oxford in

England or Paris in France. Athens was governed by public meeting. Moreover, the

socio-political life in Athens during and after the Peloponnesian war gave Plato

much worry. The society lost its traditional values and conduct; there was total

collapse of morality. That was why Plato started searching for ethical universals

such as goodness and justice to restore ethical sanity and good life in Athens.

2. The Socratic Movement

Socrates’ influence on Plato was most outstanding; what Socrates said was

what Plato believed and wrote. The activity of Socrates provided the starting point

of Plato’s philosophy. Plato was deeply affected by the life and death of Socrates

his master, whom he loved very much. He witnessed the imprisonment of his

master and condemnation to death by hemlock. The effect of this injustice pushed

Plato away from Athens and he spent some years travelling abroad. Even when he

went into politics, it was not in Athens but in Sicily. In Athens, his career was

teaching. However, among the things he taught in Athens, there was some politics.

71

Thus, Plato lost confidence in Democracy and developed phobia of anything

‘group.’

After the death of Socrates, Plato began to write about him and to develop

his own (Plato’s) philosophy. Therefore, Plato’s philosophy is a continuation of

that of Socrates. Socrates and Plato are duo. Plato’s epistemology is a continuation

of that of Socrates and it is chiefly found in his Meno, Protagoras, and Republic.8

To be sure, Socrates’ interactions with Plato on moral qualities sharpened Plato’s

wit and interest in the universal theory of ideas; hence his idealism.

Plato’s theory of knowledge is rooted in his theory of Forms or Ideas and

Plato’s education idea is an inherent part of his theory of knowledge. Ultimately,

his view of knowledge/education, his ethical theory, his psychology, his concept of

the state, and his perspective on art must be understood in terms of this theory of

Forms. A theory is a formal set of ideas that are intended to explain why something

happens or exists. In Plato’s writings, he bought Socrates’ beliefs in the following:

1. innate knowledge or anamnesis which Plato links to the world of forms and pre-

existence of the soul in the world of forms prior to its coming into the physical

world;

2. objectivity of knowledge and the use of dialectic and elenchus in search of truth,

knowledge and for self-examination because, for Socrates, unexamined life is not

worth-living;

3. virtue as knowledge and vice as ignorance and virtue as the only source of

happiness;

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4. love or eros as man’s liberator from every lack, ignorance or intellectual

darkness.

Thus, influenced by Socrates, Plato was convinced that knowledge is

attainable, including self-knowledge. He was convinced of two essential

characteristics of knowledge. One, knowledge must be certain and infallible. Two,

knowledge must have as its object that which is genuinely real as contrasted with

that which is an appearance. That which is genuinely real, for Plato, must be static.

Plato identified the real with the ideal realm of being rather than the physical world

of becoming. So, Plato rejected empiricism – the claim that knowledge is derived

from sense experience. He believed that awareness or propositions derived from

sense experience are probable; they are not certain. Objects of sense experience are

changeable phenomena. As such, objects of sense experience are not proper objects

of knowledge. In the Republic, his Simile of the Cave, Plato used the image of the

divided line to distinguish between two levels of awareness, namely opinion (doxa)

and knowledge (nous or episteme).9 For Plato, claims about the physical world and

propositions of science are opinions (doxa) while higher level of awareness is

knowledge (episteme) because, in it, reason rather than sense experience is

involved. Plato believed that reason properly used results in intellectual insights

which are certain and the objects of those rational insights are Universals, the

Forms or Substances that make up the real world.10

The Socratic Plato attached

great importance to reasoning, as far as necessary, because it helps man to move

from opinion to knowledge. Such intellectual gymnastics is made possible through

what Plato called psychic harmony which stems from true education. True

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education, by extention, is rooted in the effective development, in the child or

learner or citizen, the three domains in education, that is, the Cognitive, the

Psychomotor and the Affective; otherwise known as the 3Hs in education: the

Head, the Hand and the Heart. Knowledge or virtue, for Plato, can be achieved and

communicated through proper education which must be a life-long exercise or

pursuit11

and geared towards developing the child’s or learner’s ability and interest;

hence child-centred education-cum-individualized teaching and learning. He

emphasized that communication of thought must be devoid of what he called false

indoctrination of art. Plato described art as mimesis, deceptive and what makes

people lack understanding of things as they really are, thereby causing illusion.

Plato’s Socrates taught by engaging people in dialogue through cross-

examination or elenchus and dialectic which he called intellectual mid-wifery.

Through this intellectual mid-wifery, Socrates was able to help his interlocutor or

learner to put to bed innate knowledge. Plato believed that because virtue is

knowledge it can be taught through compulsory education, control and punishing

of wrong-doers12

to serve as deterrence; all geared toward human development by

know-how and do-how. In that light, Plato’s education thought, just like Nigerian

traditional education, is functionalist and paternalistic; hence the philosophical

relationship or connection between Plato’s education culture and Nigerian

education culture.

What is more is that, for Plato, to know the good is to do the good. The

‘Good’, for Plato, is the ultimate Form in the hiararchy of forms and it illuminates

every other thing or idea. Therefore, for Plato a virtuous person is the only truly

74

educated, functional and happy person. Put in another way, for Plato, education

must guarantee a concord of reason and emotion and optimal development of

knowledge and skill in the learner or child or citizen so that he/she will be able to

achieve true education, love, virtuous life, functionality in the state, psychic

harmony, self-actualization, and happiness.

Plato concluded, therefore, that the fairest thing that should be given to a

child is education. And that education, just like truth, should be unchanging in

terms of its essence, that is, development. Plato’s theory of knowledge has some

implication for secondary education in Nigeria, as it makes all involved in it useful

and developed, as elaborated in the latter part of this dissertation.

Furthermore, Plato’s classic Apology was the speech Socrates gave at his

trial in response to the accusations leveled against him (Apology is from Greek

“apologia” meaning ‘defence’). In it, Plato advocated the examined life and

condemned the Athenian democracy for injustice. He believed that due to the

unjust killing of Socrates, politicians were suffering from ignorance and that the

world would see no peace unless philosophers became kings or kings became

philosophers. Therefore, he established his school, the Academy in 387BC for the

education of future politicians. Actually, Plato used the Apology to defend and

praise Socrates by making use of many of the points Socrates himself had offered

in his speech. He used it to call upon his reader to reject the conventional life that

Athens would have preferred Socrates to lead, and to choose, instead, the life of a

Socratic philosopher.13

Thus, Plato bought his master’s idea entirely that no-one

does evil knowingly; so, virtue is knowledge.

75

In addition, as Socrates, Plato believed in innate ideas or innate knowledge

– anamnesis that he links to the world of forms and the pre-existence of the soul in

the world of forms prior to its coming into the world as mentioned earlier.

According to him, the object of knowledge is not the material things but form in

the world of Forms. That is, the supra-sensible world, which Plato believed to be

the real world. For him, the material world is a shadow or the reflection of the real

world - the world of Form.

Plato’s Socrates was very critical of the skepticism and relativism of the

Sophists and was convinced of the objectivity of knowledge. To him, knowledge

has four qualities: objectivity, universality, stability, and certainty. Knowledge is

acquired by reason not sense perception, as sense perception only leads us to

opinion as mentioned earlier. Plato believed in Socratic dialectic. While Socrates

presented dialectic as the process of bringing out innate ideas in the learner and the

search for truth through question and answer, for Plato, it is the process of

metaphysical reasoning, which leads to knowledge of forms or true knowledge.14

Plato believed that only philosophers had true knowledge as they were the only

people capable of dialectical reasoning. However, through dialectic Socrates and

Plato believed that both the learner and the teacher could seek knowledge together.

As Socrates did not write any book, Plato presented us with many potentially

different figures as Socrates. For example, the Socrates who appears in transitional

dialogues (Euthydemus, Gorgias, Meno, Protagoras), middle dialogues (Cratylus,

Parmenides, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic, Symposium, Theaetetus), and some of

his late dialogues (Critias, Philebus, Sophist, Statesman, Timaeus, Laws, Seventh

76

Letter) seems to be increasingly a mouth-piece for Plato’s own developing

thoughts.15

It is important to note that Plato’s dialogues are divided into three

groups: the early, the middle and the later dialogues. According to the recent

respected scholarship, the earliest include:

a. the most important Apology, which depicts and philosophically examines

Socrates’ trial and execution;

b. the Meno, which is concerned with whether virtue can be taught;

c. the Gorgias, which concerns the nature of right and wrong; and

d. the first book of the Republic, where his educational thoughts are discussed.

The middle group of the dialogues includes the remaining books of the Republic,

Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, Cratylus, Parmenides and Theaetetus. In the most

famous of these, the Republic, Plato explained and interrelated his conceptions of

Justice, the ideal state and the theory of Form. Plato’s later dialogues include most

notably:

a. the Timaeus, which is Plato’s account of the creation of the universe;

b. the Sophist, which examines the nature of non-being; and

c. the Laws, which are concerned with what laws, a good constitution should

contain. The Laws is Plato’s longest dialogue and the only dialogue in which

Socrates is not present.16

Nonetheless, these are some significant ideas that came close to being the

common property of the figure that Plato presented to us as Socratic beliefs:

1. knowledge is virtue and vice is ignorance. No one does evil knowingly;

2. virtue is the only source of happiness;

77

3. the sort of self-mastery (enkrateia), self-sufficiency (autarkeia) and moral

toughness (karteria) exhibited by Socrates with regard to pleasure and pains are

important for happiness;

4. the use of questioning based on epagoge – induction - arguing from parallel

cases is important with regard to acquisition of knowledge, establishment of truth

and virtue;

5. eros or love is man’s liberator from every lack, ignorance or intellectual

darkness as it is the force that pushes man into endless search for knowledge/virtue;

6. the artist and politicians are ignorant people which is revealed through

examination: artists produce false indoctrination while politicians use opinions

instead of reasoning which leads to knowledge/virtue.

7. unexamined life is not worthliving.17

Thus seen, Socrates’ practice of Philosophy is an education for everyone, including

himself and education as Socrates conceives it is a lifelong exercise/pursuit.18

For

Socrates, the safest wall for survival and happiness is wisdom (Phronesis).19

Plato’s

Socrates called upon his interlocutors to examine their lives and reflect upon their

lives and their aspirations to arête (virtue). However, the Socratic Plato was seen as

the first systematic philosopher, the first to see philosophy as a distinctive approach

to what were later to be called Logic, Physics, and Ethics, even Education. His

academy was the first multi- subject, multi-teacher institution of higher learning in

western civilization. For 20 years, Aristotle was a member of the Academy.20

Aristotle started his own school, the Lyceum, only after Plato’s death. The

78

Academy survived for centuries until the emperor Justinian closed it to protect

Christian truth.21

Plato was the first thinker to demarcate Philosophy as a subject and method

in its own right, distinct from other approaches to knowledge as Rhetoric and

Poetry. He is at times said to have been inventor of Philosophy due to his insistence

on its difference from other forms of thought. He seems to have been the first to

use the word ‘Philosophia’ – love of wisdom.22

Plato was interested in practically

every subject and spoke intelligibly on philosophical topics and problems and few

individuals, if any, have had more influence on Western thought than the Socratic

Plato.23

Indeed, Plato’s dialogue can be read as a carefully staged exhibition and

investigation of Paideia, that is, education in the broadest sense, including all that

affects the formation of character and the mind.24

His considered views on Paideia

were: Who should be educated, by whom, for what?; and presuppositions of

different kinds of learning.25

There is no topic of philosophical concern for which

one cannot find some view in the corpus of Plato’s work.26

In short, the Socratic Plato impresses us, more than any other figure in

Literature and Philosophy, with great importance on thinking and reasoning as well

as making our acts conform to our thoughts. To this end, Plato enjoined his reader

to search for knowledge/virtue/truth by the following: hypothetical entertainment

of opinions and the exploration of their consequences and connections; the

willingness to follow the argument wherever it leads; the public confession of

one’s thoughts and the invitation to others to criticize; the readiness to reconsider

79

and take firm action in accordance with one’s present beliefs27

(which are more

rational or well grounded).

3. The Elenchus

Elenchus, otherwise known as adversarial co-operation, is a Greek word

meaning ‘testing’ or examination.28

It also means a dialectical or Socratic method

of eliciting truth by cross-examination; hence at times it is referred to as the

elenctic method.29

The Socratic tradition is rooted in the critical examination of

common beliefs in order to identify the puzzles and difficulties they raise. Plato

followed Socrates strictly in trying to find an account of the basic principles of

knowledge, morality that will resolve the puzzle and preserve important beliefs.30

Thus, in the early dialogues, Socrates had some conversation with some

interlocutors and he refuted their wrong claims. Such refutation is known as

elenchus. The awareness of one’s ignorance (as an interlocutor) is supposed to spur

one to further inquiry, concepts and assumptions employed in the refutation serve

as the basis for positive Platonic treatments of the same topic.31

In contrast,

sophistic elenchi are merely eristic: they aim simply at the refutation of an

opponent by any means.32

The Platonic elenchi fall into three parts:

1. an initial exchange designed to clarify (and give a distinctively Socratic twist to)

the concept of self-knowledge;

2. the question of possibility: Is knowledge possible?

3. the question of utility: If knowledge is possible how would it be beneficial?33

The transition of elenchus is made possible by the fact that the Delphic “Know

Thyself” admits two distinct readings: Know that you are a mortal and not god,

80

acknowledge your limitations, and your place in the world; and know your own

ignorance, recognize that you lack wisdom and develop passion for knowledge and

the good life.34

Furthermore, Socrates taught by engaging others in dialogue, not by writing;

hence the ‘Socratic method.’ This method of teaching (popular especially in law

schools today), begins with the teacher posing a simple question such as: What is

truth? Or what does it mean to be just? When a student answers, the teacher

responds with another question that prompts him/her to think more deeply and

offer a new answer. Like the discussion between Socrates and Euthyphro when he

asked Euthyphro to tell him what godliness and ungodliness mean.35

This process

is called destructive cross-examination or elenchus, and it continues until either the

teacher or the student or both feel that the analysis has gone as far as they can take

it at the moment.36

Plato’s Socrates would always dominate any dialogue and lead the listener.

He was a formidable teacher, leading, questioning, giving information (often in the

form of a question), and ‘forcing’ his listener gently to see the errors in his or her

thinking/propositions. The Socratic Method is geared towards achieving

functionality in education. Thus, Plato’s model of education is ‘functionalist.’37

By

functionalist, it means a model of learning designed to create precise curiosity and

knowledge in the learner so as to produce competent adults to meet the needs of the

state. Further, by functionalist, it means each citizen performing his/her nature-

given role in the ideal state. Therefore, Plato developed his thought on education in

the context of describing the ideal state where educators could work to produce

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people who are both self-actualized and useful to the state. He had definite ideas

about the good life and what we, today, call self-actualization. He believed that

only those who had the leisure to think long deeply, to continue lifelong study and

take precise and effective virtuous action could participate in the good life.38

In

other words, Plato’s education principles laid emphasis on special education of

Workers or Artisans, Guardians or Soldiers , and Rulers thus:

i. the first group (Artisans) were to be well trained in specific occupations, so that,

Plato’s Socrates would say that our shoes would be well made and our crops well

tended.39

Thus, the economic structure of the state is maintained by the merchant

class/workers/artisans.

ii. The second group (the Guardians) identified by natural, physical strength and

spirit were to receive expert level of physical and moral training to defend the state.

Socrates described the noble auxiliary or guardian as well trained in Philosophy,

spirit, swiftness and strength.40

Thus the security needs of the state is met by the

military class/soldiers/guardians.

iii. The third group, the political rulers were to be educated with meticulous care in

virtue, Philosophy, Mathematics, Literature, and History and their education would

continue well beyond the usual school years.41

So that they become philosopher-

kings who provide political leadership in the state. Plato concluded:

Proper cultural education would enable a person, even when

young, and still incapable of rationality, understanding why and the

ability to rightly condemn and loathe contemptible and bad things;

and hence the rational mind would be greeted like an old friend

when he arrives.42

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Note that Plato advocated play-way method of teaching children.43

A person’s class

in the ideal state is determined by an educational process that begins at birth,

proceeds until the learner achieves maximum level of education/knowledge

compatible with interest and ability. More so, those who complete the entire

educational process are the philosopher-kings; they are those whose minds are so

developed that they have a clear grasp of the forms and so, can make the wisest

decisions. Thus seen, Plato’s educational system is primarily aimed at producing

philosopher-kings.

4. Virtue as Knowledge

Plato’s ethical theory rests on his belief that “knowledge is virtue,”44

and

because virtue is knowledge, it can be taught/learned.45

Virtue, for Plato, must be

understood in terms of his theory of Forms. The forms are arranged hierarchically

and the ultimate form is the form of the Good, which, like the sun in the Simile of

the Cave, illuminates every other idea or things.46

Therefore, knowledge of the

form of the ‘Good’ is the source of guidance in moral decision-making. In that

light, Plato argued that to know the ‘Good’ is to do the good.47

The corollary of this

is that ignorance is the cause of wrong acts, for no one who really knows what is

wrong will do it. What confuses an evildoer is that he thinks, erroneously, that he

has the knowledge of what is good which he, in fact, lacks. That is why he does

wrong believing that is good, perhaps because of some trivial benefit from it. He

concluded that a moral or virtuous person is the only truly educated, functional and

happy person. Moreover, because persons always desire their own happiness, they

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always desire to do the good; hence vice is due to ignorance, for no one does evil

knowingly, after all, who would not like to be happy?

To the ordinary man, it sounds odd and unbelievable to say that if one knows

what is right, one will do it; and that wrongdoing is due to ignorance. However,

some thinkers believe that by ‘knowledge,’ Plato’s Socrates meant deep reflective

personal conviction. This means that if a man is, indeed, deeply and reflectively

convinced that something is good, that man will do it. On the other hand, some

may argue that criminals are not always ignorant people – they know that what

they do is wrong/evil, yet they do it. This raises some epistemological question:

How do we know that one does actually know or does not actually know? Plato

insisted that there is no room for ‘akrasia’ (weakness of the will). What people call

‘akrasia’ he said it is ignorance. According to him, like arts, virtue cannot be

obtained automatically or by mere luck. Nobody can act well without knowing

what he/she does, why and how to do it.48

All that evildoers and criminals need is

knowledge to be able to reflect on, and behold the remote consequences of their

evil acts and they will abandon those wrong acts. Thus, the source of virtue is

knowledge; not only abstract, theoretical knowledge but also concrete and practical

knowledge, just like that of the skilled craftsman who knows what he is making

and how to make it.49

Plato defined virtue as knowledge of good and bad.

Therefore, vice is done involuntarily and against the will because the will has basic

and natural tendency to what is good. According to Plato, all persons seek the good

by nature, as all things have inherent propensity to enhance and perfect the

existence and essence with which they are originally endowed. Man is no

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exception. When the human soul fulfils this natural tendency, its well functioning

is what Plato called virtue or knowledge.50

Just as when the body functions well in

accordance with nature, the condition is referred to as ‘health’.

It is worthy of note that the soul, according to Plato, is naturally more

important than the body. This is because the soul uses the body as its instrument,

and that which uses is superior to that which is used. The health of the soul, which

is virtue, is more important than the health of the body, and “tending the soul”

(through proper education) is the ultimate duty of man.51

To him, vice is worse than

physical death because vice affects the soul negatively.52

Plato held that virtue is

sufficient for happiness.53

He said that education should be the initial acquisition of

virtue by a child, by channeling in the right courses, the right thought about good

and bad, pleasure and pain, affection and hatred54

; when he becomes an adult, his

reason and emotion will concur to appropriate habits55

; hence virtue/knowledge is

the general concord of reason and emotion. It is important to note that Plato divided

the human soul into three parts: The Rational part, the Will, and the Appetite.56

A

just person is one in whom the rational element, supported by the will, controls the

appetite; one who has psychic harmony of the three parts of the soul. If reason is

paralyzed, the ruling function of the soul is taken over by sub-ordinate, negative

agency – ignorance – just as light and darkness behave.

Therefore, Plato believed that anyone who commits wrong acts has his/her

guiding faculties corrupt through ignorance; because he thinks that he knows what

he does not know and thinks that he wills ‘the good’ which he does not actually

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will.57

The Socratic Plato enumerated four cardinal virtues, namely wisdom,

justice, courage, and temperance:

i. Wisdom alone can guide an action to its natural end, as it controls other virtues;

ii. Justice renders to each his/her due according to genuine need and capacity in

line with reason;

iii. Courage persists in wise and right acts, no matter the obstacles that may arise;

iv. Temperance is the harmony of all the various parts of the soul (reason, spirit,

and appetite), in accordance with reason.58

A close look at these virtues and their relations to each other shows that they

are all knowledge of some sort. Concerning duty and interest, Plato believed that

there is no natural conflict between real duty and interests of man; they coincide.

This is so, because if man pursues the good, which he desires by nature, in the long

run, it is more satisfying and pleasant than when he violates and thwarts his nature

by vicious and irrational appetites, interests and acts. Thus, vicious interests/acts

are results of ignorance when examined critically.

Plato, therefore, concluded that the worst disease that can attack a person or

a community is intellectual confusion, and loss of over-arching purpose which can

be corrected through proper education. When education is paralyzed, the

community is filled with parasitic citizens/individuals who misbehave, putting

society into chaos and social decay. In fact, for Plato, the good is the Socratic arête

(virtue), that is, the moral and intellectual excellence of the soul. Arête/episteme is

what we really need and want. That is why every man desires the good; every

action is rooted in the pursuit of ‘the good.’

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Therefore, knowledge is required both to recognize the true object of desire

(the intrinsic good) and to secure the means of achieving it (the instrumental good).

One can only recognize what one already knew before. This is why Plato insisted

that man has innate knowledge. One who has knowledge will always be able to

differentiate between the intended objects of desire (de dictu) and the actual object

that should be desired (de re) and is convinced courageously to go for the good.59

Among the radical reforms suggested in the Republic is the right of every child to

education.60

Furthermore, for Plato, knowledge is true insight, which is already in the

person that can be elicited through vast questions and answers. In other words,

knowledge is a matter of remembrance of the Form, which is already known or

inbuilt in the person. Plato’s Socrates proved that knowledge is inborn by the

interlude in the dialogue between him and Meno in which he (Socrates) questioned

Meno’s slave boy about a problem in geometry – how to find a square double in

area to any given square. The slave, who has never studied geometry, guided by

Socrates’ questions, came to see for himself and recognized what the right answer

was.61

It is an intellectual virtue for one to be able to grasp truth or the Forms.62

Education should guarantee harmony of reason and emotion, optimal imparting of

knowledge (know-how/do-how) and skill in the learner/child/citizen; so that he or

she will be able to achieve true education, virtuous life, functionality in the state

and happiness; hence the good life. Thus, Plato concluded that the fairest thing that

should be given to a child is education.

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5. The Allegory of the Cave

Plato used the theories of “the allegory of the cave” and “the divided line” to

illustrate the dual concepts of what exist in the two levels of the world – the unreal

and the real world63

; opinion or doxa and knowledge or episteme as mentioned

earlier. In the allegory of the cave, Plato illustrated the fact that awareness of the

physical world is a deceit. People, who base their knowledge on physical

perception only, are like those in the cave who claim to have seen real

objects/reality from the light of the sun but they only saw reflections of the real.

Using this Myth of the Cave, Plato invited his reader to imagine a cave in which

some prisoners are bound/chained so that they can only look at the wall in front of

them. Behind them is a fire whose light casts shadows of various objects on the

wall in front of the prisoners. Because the prisoners cannot see the objects

themselves, they regard the shadows they see as the true reality. One of the

prisoners eventually escapes from the cave, and in the light of the sun, he sees real

objects for the first time, becoming aware of the big difference between the real

objects and the shadow images he had been taking to be reality.64

The cave, obviously, represents the world we see and experience with our

senses, and the world of sunlight represents the real world of Forms.65

The

prisoners represent ordinary people who, in taking the sensible world to be the real

world, are condemned to darkness, error, ignorance and illusion.66

They are the

uncritical minds who take things for granted. They are sadists, wicked, corrupt and

ignorant people who seek for happiness and the good in evil.

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The escaped prisoner represents the philosopher, who has seen light, truth,

virtue, beauty, knowledge, and true reality.67

Of course the escaped prisoner, will

count himself happy for his liberation and pity the others who are still inside the

cave. The escaped prisoner would rather prefer suffering any pain to going back to

the cave.68

If the philosopher returns to the cave to tell the prisoners how things

really are, they will think that his brain has been addled.69

The sun is the form of

the good and the chain with which the prisoners are bound and prevented from

seeing the true realities are passions, prejudice, sophistries, illusions, deceptions,

greediness, wickedness, corruption,70

etc. Outside the cave is the world of ideas,

the intelligible world, the world of Forms.71

So, for Plato, knowledge involves

more than sense perception. For instance, in case of sense data, like seeing a

straight stick inside a body of water being bent, thinking is required for us to know

that the stick is actually straight. In addition, to know other things about the stick

involves higher thought. Again, knowledge is not just sense perception because one

can retain knowledge even after one is no longer sensing a thing.

As emphasized earlier, true knowledge must be knowledge of what is, as the

objects of sense perceptions are always changing. The objects of true knowledge

are the forms, because the objects of sense perception are real only to the extent

that they “participate” in the forms. Thus, Plato differentiated between knowledge

and mere belief or opinion as the real and the unreal world respectively.

In addition, Plato believed that each individual has in his/her immortal soul,

a perfect set of forms that can be remembered (anamnesis) and only these

constitute true knowledge. To remember the form is to know the absolute truth and

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simultaneously to become just and wise; hence there are two radically separate

spheres: the realm of shadows or imperfect changing beings and the realm of

perfect, eternal, unchanging forms which is beheld outside the cave. However, the

difficulty in this theory is how one gets out of the cave to the perfect world of

forms and true knowledge. Plato answered this question by saying that one can be

liberated from the cave through love (eros).72

According to him, love is that which

seeks to possess the beautiful and to recreate in beauty.73

Human beings love to

love: they truly come alive only in seeking a beloved, whether that beloved is

another human being, an idea, health, money, education, piety,74

etc. Plato’s love

begins as an experience of lacking something. Love provokes both thought and

effort in the pursuit of what is lacking,75

and it is illuminated by the Good. The

good is the ultimate form in the hierarchy of forms. The deeper the thought the

greater the love; hence love is the ‘force’ that brings all things together, perfects,

and makes them beautiful.76

Through love man can ascend to higher sense of self-

actualization and perfection; that is the ultimate way of knowing and realizing

truth. To love the highest/best is to become the best.

6. Plato and Arts: Mimetic Philosophy

Plato laboured to save man from undesirable works of art. He was critical of

arts and artists. Plato believed that apart from shadows experienced by the

prisoners in the allegory of the cave, there are other kinds of images which are

deceptive that are created by the artist and the poet. He described the work of art

and poetry as mimesis, meaning imitation or mimicry.77

The artist presents images

that are at least two steps removed from true reality.78

Whatever one experiences is

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shadow/imitation of the real object in the world of Form and products of art are

imitations of imitations of the object in the real world of Form. Plato’s criticism of

art is that it produces images that stimulate illusory ideas in the observer. If the

image is taken to be a perfect vision of something real, illusion is produced.79

Artistic images shape the way people think and their attitude to life; and if people

restrict their understanding of things to those images, with all their distortions and

exaggerations, they will certainly lack an understanding of things as they really

are.80

In his philosophy of mimesis, Plato expressed disgust with artists and arts in

general. Plato’s concern was not just a mere philosophical ratiocination, rather he

was indeed worried about the future of Athenian society of his period which he

believed was engulfed in false indoctrination. Therefore, Plato emphasized that

communication of thought must be devoid of what he called false indoctrination of

art. He described the artist as a person who lacks the knowledge of his subject.

After taking into consideration what would be the fate of education in such a place

(like Athens) whose learning process flies on the wing of arts, the way of

falsehood, sheer deception and imagination, Plato suggested that all artistic

productions should be gathered and thrown into the Aegean sea.81

In other words,

he urged that right communication be made; whether in teaching, picture, music,

dancing and drama.82

He urged that children should be controlled and restrained

from ugly style of music, dance or drama until they are mature enough, to be able

to loathe bad products of communication media.83

Teachers must be compelled to

learn correct information and teach them to children.84

This suffices to say that not

all communication of thought is education. Some communications of thought are

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bad and corruptible and can lead children, the ignorant and the uncritical mind

astray; hence need censoring. This implies that true communication and true

education must be worthwhile and connote positive information. True education

helps one to attain psychic harmony.

Furthermore, Plato urged strict censorship of art productions because of their

influence on molding children’s/people’s characters. Using his theory of forms, he

compared artists, unfavourably with craftsmen. Thus, he declared that a chair made

by a carpenter, for instance, is an imperfect copy of the (original) ideal form of a

chair. A painting of a chair is therefore a copy of a copy, and twice removed from

the reality, the ideal form.85

Plato believed that artists and poets could not usually

explain their works. As such, since they do not know the essence and meaning of

their works, he reasoned that they did not create because of their ingenuity and

possession of any special knowledge. Rather, Plato concluded that artists create

because they are seized by irrational inspiration, a kind of “divine madness.”86

Thus seen, Plato advocated strict censoring of all works of art by the government

and approval by parents for their children’s consumption of art productions. This is

to ensure that those works of arts do not provide bad models of behaviour such as:

the excessive emotional reactions of tragic heroes, excessive portrayal of sex,

prostitution, nudity and lust, stereotyping of social evil, and approval of deviance,

violence and ostentation.87

Also, Plato believed that because art is, merely, the

imitation of an imitation, it should occupy a subordinate role in society.88

For Plato,

if artists must imitate, let them do pure imitation of virtue.89

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7. Plato’s Dialectic

The word “dialectic” originated from the Greek word “dialegein,” meaning

“to argue” or “to converse.”90

Dialectic is an argumentative exchange involving

contradiction or a technique or a method connected with such exchange. It is an

argument conducted by questions and answers; resting on an opponent’s

concessions and aiming at refuting the opponent by deserving contradictory

consequences.91

Dialectic was first applied by Socrates who, as presented in the

dialogues of Plato, constantly practiced two techniques, both hypothetical in form:

a. refuting an opponent’s statement by getting him in the course of questioning to

accept as an ultimate result of it a statement contradicting it; and

b. leading him on to a generalization by getting him to accept its truth in a series of

instances; hence epagoge – “induction.”92

In other words, in Socratic Method,

dialectic is a process of eliciting the truth by means of questions, aimed at opening

out what is already known, innately or at exposing the contradictions and muddles

of an opponent’s position.93

Socrates used dialectic as a process of intellectual

midwifery94

to help his opponent or learner to put to bed innate knowledge through

(Socratic) pretended ignorance. A good example is found in the dialogue between

Socrates and Meno, where Meno wants to know Socrates’ position on whether

virtue can be taught, or whether it comes by practice, or whether it is inborn, or

otherwise. Socrates claimed he did not know what virtue is and that Meno did not

know it either, and so proposed that they inquire into it together95

; hence dialectic.

Thus, the Socratic Plato regarded dialectic as the supreme philosophical

method, the ‘coping’ of the sciences and it is to be the final stage in the formal

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education of his philosopher-kings.96

However, Plato may have had various

conceptions of dialectic at different times. At times it was certainly the method of

refuting hypotheses; and at a later stage it included the method of “division” of a

genus into species, one of which was divided again and again as long as repetition

was possible.97

Further, in the middle dialogues of Plato, dialectic becomes the

total process of enlightenment, whereby the philosopher is educated so as to

achieve the knowledge of the supreme good, the form of the good. Plato’s dialectic

influenced many philosophers after him like Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Fichte,

Schelling, Hegel, and Karl Marx. For the sake of emphasis, Aristotle saw dialectic

as any rational inference based on probable premises.98

Immanuel Kant believed

that dialectic is the “logic of illusion” of transcendental metaphysics, which is

metaphysics as impossibility.99

For Kant, Metaphysics is a science. Fichte and

Schelling developed dialectic into a triadic notion of Thesis, Antithesis (opposing),

and Synthesis (resultant). Hegel transformed the notion of contradiction from a

logical to a metaphysical one, making dialectic a theory, not simply of argument

but of historical process and the development of the theory of state - the (absolute)

“spirit.”100

Karl Marx transformed dialectic further, by replacing (Hegel’s) “spirit”

with “matter”; hence his Dialectical Materialism.101

Through Plato’s dialectic,

opinion is differentiated from knowledge.102

Therefore, dialectic is the process of

reasoning to obtain truth and knowledge on any topic.103

Plato declared: “When the

eye of the soul is buried in a barbaric bog, dialectic gently pulls it out and leads it

upwards and turns the soul around.”104

It is important to note that elenchus and

dialectic are related in the sense that elenchus involves self-examination, that is,

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testing oneself and others in the light of normative and epistemological principles.

While dialectic is more of general search for truth through

reasoning/argumentation. Thus, elenchus is used in testing of persons and positions

but dialectic is used in testing positions/propositions only. More so, elenchus is

used to excavate what one or others know and do, whereas dialectic is used in

ratiocination.

8. Plato’s Educational Structure

Plato recommended four levels of education. They are:

1. Pre-primary education, which should start from birth to six years.105

2. Primary education, which starts from when the child is six years, to when he/she

attains eighteen years. After that, a transitional period of two years is used for

extensive military course.

3. Secondary education, which lasts from when the child is twenty years of age to

when he/she becomes thirty years.

4. Higher education, which starts when a learner is thirty years of age and ends

when the learner attains fifty years of age.106

Plato’s educational structure shows that schooling should start at the early

stage of a child’s life and such pre-primary education should last for the first 6

years.107

It is important to note that a close look at Plato’s educational structure

shows that it shares some characteristics with the 6-3-3-4 system of education

practiced in Nigeria. Each takes cognizance of all levels of human development:

childhood, adolescence and adulthood; hence Nigeria adopted Plato’s education

ideas indirectly through colonial/Western education which is rooted in Platonism.

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Plato’s Curriculum

Plato recommended Music and Literature at the level of primary education

before physical training.108

Physical training is for the body while music and

literature (Poetry) is for the soul.109

At primary education level, Plato

recommended that stories be told to children, also before physical training.110

Note

that Plato advocated state control of education.111

If Plato were to be a 21st century

Nigerian, he would not be happy with the Nigerian government for taking over

Nigerian schools/education from the missionaries only to abandon them through

neglect and laziness. He urged that all immoral and bad things should not be

allowed to be part of children’s stories and comics.112

Drama should be eschewed

because it may lead the pupils to adapt roles of the character (bad) they played.

Very importantly, Plato advocated the Play-Way Method of teaching.113

Plato did

not cherish co-education; at age of six the sexes should be separated: boys should

spend their days with boys, and girls with girls but each should attend lessons.114

However, Plato cherished equal educational opportunities for both boys and

girls.115

For Plato, progression in level of education should be based on merit, and

education should be rooted in interest and ability of the child/learner.

After the two years of post-primary education, used for military training, the

successful pupils were enrolled into secondary school while the unsuccessful ones

were left to become labourers. Subjects like Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and

Harmonics were to be taught to pupils/students at secondary level of education.116

The major objective of secondary education is to teach abstract thought to the

students. Plato believed that abstract subjects were conditio sine qua non

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(necessary condition) to the final stage of education. At the end of secondary

education, successful students proceed to higher education which lasts for 20 years,

whereas those unsuccessful become auxiliaries. At higher level of education, Plato

recommended a 5-year course in dialectic, which will help learners to have the

knowledge of the form of “the Good.”117

The remaining 15 years training should be

spent in acquisition of experiences in public life, military commands and other

offices. Note that this course in question should start when the learner is thirty

years of age. The successful ones end up as part of the ruling class of the state,

while the unsuccessful ones should remain mere administrators.118

In summary: Plato advocated that justice consists in each man or citizen

contributing to the welfare of the state, in that area where he/she is naturally gifted

and trained or educated. Plato believed that the role of education was to make each

person competent, efficient, and effective in performing his/her functions

creditably in the division of labour in the state, and that education must be

compulsory for every child.119

He advocated that progression in the level of

education should be based on merit, that is, interest and ability of the learner. He

also preferred equal educational opportunities of both male and female to basing

education and duty on sex or gender. As he believed that knowledge is virtue, he

then perceived virtue as an effective functioning of the soul; hence effective

performance of ones duties and pursuit of ‘the good’ through ‘love.’ He argued that

good role models be always presented to kids for imitation and all forms of

cowardice should be prevented in children. Plato stressed the need for what could

be called guidance and counseling services in schools.

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Plato was the first to set up a school and the first to draw a comprehensive

educational system and scheme from kindergarten to university level. Ultimately,

Plato’s idealism is rooted in his view that man should search for truth, self-

realization, character development and good values through education. He

advocated the training of young people to be truthful, obedient and temperate by

controlling their bodily appetites and avoidance of pride, laziness and self-

irrationalism.120

For Plato, the first level of education is self-examination and the

function of philosophy is examination of everything.121

Plato’s theory of forms and

his theory of knowledge are interrelated. For him, knowledge must be certain and

has as its object that which is genuinely real as contrasted with that which is an

appearance only.122

Plato distinguished between two levels of awareness: Opinion

(doxa) and knowledge (episteme).123

Opinion is concerned with individual physical

things, but knowledge is concerned with universals - internal, immutable, essence

of things, and ideal nature of things - the Form. Examples are goodness, beauty,

etc. Thus, high level of awareness is knowledge, because in it, reason rather than

sense experience (empiricism) is involved; when reason is properly used, it results

in intellectual insights that are certain, and the objects of this rational insights are

the abiding universals, the internal Forms or substances that constitute the real

world. 124

Thus, Plato believed in an unchanging world of perfect ideas or universal

concepts. He asserted that since true knowledge is the same in every place at every

time, education, like truth, should be unchanging in terms of its essence, that is,

development of the individual and society.125

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9. Critique of Plato’s Theory of Knowledge

Here, this dissertation looks at arguments for and against Plato’s theory of

knowledge (as it concerns secondary education in Nigeria, if any), in the following

points.

i. The Issue of Socratic Intellectualism

In the Protagoras, Plato identified virtue (arête) with knowledge and

interprets akrasia (vice) as intellectual mistake.126

As highlighted earlier, if a

person is reflectively convinced that an act is good, he will do it. All that an

evildoer needs is knowledge to be able to reflect on the near and remote

consequences of his evil acts and he will be motivated to jettison the bad and do the

good. Even though it is difficult to reconcile this definition of virtue as knowledge

of good and bad with non-rational motivations like fear and anger, Plato (in the

Republic) affirmed that reason and passion are one and inseparable127

; hence to

have knowledge is to have rational passion. However, these moral psychologies of

Plato are so radically different that the Socrates of the Protagoras appears to be a

different philosopher or at least, the spokesperson for a different philosophy from

the Socrates of the Republic. For Socrates in the Protagoras, the intellect is all-

powerful in its control of the springs of action; wrong conducts, he believed, can

only be due to ignorance of the good. But this view is seemingly rejected in the

Republic by the introduction of the tripartite model of the psyche: reason, spirit,

and appetite; where passion and appetite are recognized as independent sources of

motivation. Therefore, the concept of moral virtue must be re-defined; hence,

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courage which, in Protagoras is “a cognitive achievement, an excellence of the

rational soul,”128

becomes in the Republic “an emotional achievement, an

excellence of the passionate soul.”129

Socratic Intellectualism (moral psychology),

that is the development and use of the ability to think, reason, and understand in

order to achieve knowledge and the good life consists of two closely related

themes:

a. a concept of virtue in terms of knowledge; knowledge is necessary and sufficient

for correct action – so, anyone who knows what is good will do what is good;

b. the Socratic paradox that no one does evil voluntarily which is logically

connected to the assumption that everyone wants what is good – if anyone does

what is bad that can only be by mistake.130

Virtue is, therefore, rooted in a correct

recognition of what is good. By extension, what man needs for happiness is not just

the possession but the correct use of knowledge and good things. Thus seen, virtue

must be wisdom (phronesis), understood as practical knowledge of the right use of

what is prima facie good, so as to ensure that human actions are truly good and

profitable, not harmful.131

A parallel argument is in the Euthydemus which claims that wisdom is the

only good because it is both necessary and sufficient for happiness.132

This implies

that other moral virtues, namely justice, temperance, and courage are not good in

themselves but are good only when they are correctly used; that is, when their use

is guided by knowledge or wisdom. This suffices that practical wisdom has

decisive role in moral life; hence providing more definite content that knowledge

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of good and bad is the definition of virtue. And this is the knowledge that man must

possess in order to achieve the good – true happiness.

It is worthy of note that the major contribution of the Protagoras is the

constructive development of a hedonist model of decision-making with the

corresponding definition of choice in terms of measurement.133

That is to say that

any bad action is as a result of a miscalculation; it still supports the Socratic

paradox that “no one does bad things voluntarily.”134

Now, what are we to make of

the claim that knowledge/virtue is derived through reasoning?

This claim represents a purely rationalist account of human motivation and

decision-making and it has been criticized from that point of view. Aristotle

criticized Plato for neglecting the facts of human psychology in decision making.135

However, it seems that Plato himself, as noted earlier, by introducing his tripartite

analysis of motivation in the Republic, Book IV, presents his psychological theory

as an explicit correction of Socratic intellectualism.136

Thus, Socratic

intellectualism disregards emotional, effective or non-rational factors in human

motivation. The only emotive consideration is the desire for happiness or a desire

for the good.137

More precisely put, emotive factors like fear and anger are referred

to only as part of akrasia. This stand is seemingly a deceptive account of how

humans actually behave because it is difficult to swallow hook, line and sinker how

Socrates asserted the sovereignty of reason, not only in the super-strong case of

genuine knowledge of the good – the case known as philosophic virtue, but also

that the intellect as a whole, through judgment, is “all-powerful in its control of the

springs of human action.” This thesis of ‘omnipotent rationalism’ seems false; one

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may act against one’s better judgment; hence it appears that people do in fact want

and do bad things knowing, intentionally – things bad for them and things bad

absolutely.

Notwithstanding, this claim of sovereignty of reason is designed to provoke

the interlocutor (and the reader) into reflecting on the true nature of his/her wants

and how he/she applies reason to them. Plato’s Socrates, in Socratic

intellectualism, is doing a moral evaluation of the role and capacity of human

reason in decision making. In other words, the paradox serves to emphasize the

importance of moral knowledge. The Socratic Plato was not concerned about

people of good moral judgment who occasionally lose control and act contrary to

their judgment when he talked of reason as the only source of knowledge. Such

people are not ignorant in Platonic sense. Rather, he was concerned with people

like Thrasymacus who propounded and defended bad moral judgment. Such people

(like Thrasymacus) are ignorant because they lack reasoning. Indeed, the paradoxes

were aimed at inducing self-doubt, recognition of one’s ignorance as a necessary

condition for knowledge, and achievement of the capacity to (perfectly) unravel

one’s deep and half-conscious desire for the good. Now, what role can Socratic

Intellectualism play in resuscitating our secondary education? Certainly, it can help

by inducing Nigerians into critical thinking and desirable actions as it concerns

education. It is also questionable how Plato balances nature and nurture as it

concerns acquisition of knowledge. This is because at one point Plato would be

talking of anamnesis or innate knowledge and at another, he talked of

teaching/learning. One wonders when a learner remembers what he/she knows

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innately and when he/she learns a new thing which he/she never had as innate

knowledge.

However, the theory of Forms seems to have little intuitive plausibility. It

does not really sound acceptable that Forms actually exist and are the reality of

which the observed world is simply a shadowy copy. Plato’s belief that

philosophers should be in charge of the state are based on the theory of Forms;

however, he did not provide enough justification for them.

At several key points in his arguments, Plato seems to advocate lying in

order to preserve loyalty to the state and fellow citizens. Instances are: the Myth of

the Cave, the Myth of Reincarnation which he used to justify anamnesis

(reminiscence) of innate knowledge, the Myth of Metal, the lie about ‘mating

lottery’ to promote eugenics (eugenics means selective breeding to reproduce only

people with genetic characteristics judged desirable), etc. One thinks that an ideal

state, with good educational foundation, should not be founded on deception.

Again, there seems to be an uncompromising eliticism inherent in Plato’s

thought, as it seems that psychic harmony depends on one’s class in the state. It

seems that the ruling class in whom reason rules supreme are capable of psychic

harmony, by extention, they are the people capable of acting justly. What about the

other classes in the ideal state? Of course, everybody needs to attain psychic

harmony in order to live a virtuous life

ii. The Function of the Elenchus

Plato used two types of elenchus: negative, leading to contradictions (as in

the cross-examination of Meletus) and positive, leading to inference by analogy

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from parallel cases.138

Socrates saw elenchus (the testing of oneself and others in

the light of normative and epistemological principles) as “the greatest good for a

human being” since the unexamined life is not worth-living.139

Elenchus is also the

greatest good for man because it leads to passion for knowledge/virtue which

results in happiness. In other words, he conceived the practice of the elenchus as a

task assigned to him by the gods, a divine allotment consisting in living the life of

philosophy, pursuing the search for wisdom, examining himself and others.140

Socrates believed that this divine assignment was confirmed by the Delphic

Oracle.141

According to Socrates, elenchus helps the ignorant (and the evil doer) to

come to knowledge/virtues. He said: “The cause of human evil is ignorance; it is

ignorance that deceives man into doing what is bad; each of us prays for the best

but ignorance thwarts our prayers.”142

Because one errs involuntarily, said

Socrates, “what one needs is not punishment but instruction; clearly, if I learn

better, I will stop doing the evil that I do unintentionally.”143

That is why Socrates

actually used elenchus as a testing of person, not just positions.144

It is Socrates’

aim to use elenchus to excavate what his interlocutors know and what they do;

hence in the aporetic dialogues Socrates challenges his interlocutors. He insisted

that he has always been “such as to obey nothing other than reason (logos) which

seems to him best upon reflection.145

But to construct a positive philosophical

position the Socratic Plato transformed the elenchus into the method of hypothesis,

the type he used in the Meno.

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In the Sophist, the elenchus is described as a noble art, the first stage of

education which must purify/purge the mind of opinions that prevent learning, in

particular, the opinion ‘that one knows what one does not actually know.’

For as the physician considers that the body will receive no benefit

from taking food until the internal obstacles have been removed, so

the purifier of the soul is conscious that his patient will receive no

benefit from the application of knowledge until he is refuted, and

from refutation learns modesty; he must be purged of his prejudices

first and made to think that he knows only what he knows, and no

more.146

Now, for Socrates, what is good is primarily what is good for the psyche; an action

is good for me only if it improves my soul, as acting justly does. By nature what is

good for one is good for everyone else, just as everyone wants to act justly,

whether he/she knows it or not, because acting justly is good and acting unjustly is

harmful, and nobody wants to be harmed.147

But ignorance corrupts this natural

tendency by pushing man into doing wrong mistakenly in search of the good.

Therefore, anyone who acts unjustly does so involuntarily; unwillingly because he

himself does not want to be harmed; and unknowingly because he fails to realize

that his action is harmful to himself.

Thus seen, the function of the elenchus through the presentations of Socrates

is to bring the interlocutors and the reader to the point where they can behold

clearly that virtue is good, so that they must desire it. It is the function of the

elenchus to bring this desire to consciousness. It is Socrates’ confidence in such

desire that underlie his commitment to the use of elenchus; hence his claim that

beliefs and opinions must be refuted and sanctified. Furthermore, the function of

the elenchus can be seen from three perspectives:

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a. an initial exchange designed to clarify (and give a distinctively Socratic twist to)

the concept of self knowledge148

;

b. the question of possibility: Can there be knowledge of knowledge?149

;

c. the question of utility: Even if such knowledge (in 1 and 2 above) is possible,

how would they be beneficial?150

In that case, Socrates himself by examining the possibility of knowledge of

knowledge examined the possibility of Socratic self-knowledge; hence the self-

reflectivity in elenchus. Socrates began by asking what self-knowledge is

knowledge of, and what product it provides one with. Is it possible for one to know

what one knows and what one does not know? If it is possible, of what benefit will

such knowledge be? Medicine, for instance, provides health, agriculture provides

food; what does self-knowledge provide? It provides virtue and passion to acquire

knowledge endlessly.

However, it cannot be deemphasized that as Socratic elenchus delves into

these questions Socrates himself claimed to be barren of any knowledge. The

question is: How without wisdom or knowledge (of his own) can Socrates know

what makes a soul good? How does Socrates know wrong opinions or wrong

beliefs of others or even oneself when he (Socrates) claims to be in total dearth of

knowledge? One perceives some implications of the Socratic elenchus. What are

those implications of the Socratic elenchus?

a. One implication is that if Socrates could test his interlocutors for something like

temperance (for instance), he (Socrates) must himself be temperate. This is because

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nemo quid dat non habet – one cannot give what one does not have. Socrates could

only interprete temperance if he had and used it;

b. The most significant implication of the Socratic elenchus is that Socrates cannot

successfully test for knowledge in any subject in which he (Socrates) is himself

ignorant. Therefore, Socrates’ claim to have only the knowledge of his own

ignorance cannot be taken at face value. Insofar as the Socratic elenchus is a

successful technique for revealing ignorance in the interlocutor, Socrates must

himself possess the relevant sort of first-hand knowledge. What then is the

knowledge that Socrates possesses that his interlocutors lack? The answer is

knowledge of virtue, good life. To be sure, if Socrates can successfully examine his

fellow Athenians vis-a-vis virtue and the good life, he must himself know human

excellence very well. He must have the kind of knowledge that is beneficial for

human beings, that knowledge which makes for happy life; hence the Socratic

elenchus is a key to human happiness. Nigeria needs the use of elenchus in her

education culture.

iii. The Examined Life: Virtue and Happiness

In the early dialogues, there are certain positive claims, which Socrates puts

forward. He said a good person cannot be harmed; virtue is all that is relevant for

happiness; it is better, if you have done wrong, to be punished than to get away

with it.151

Socrates insisted that virtue matters far more than people think it does,

and he went about persuading people to change their value for better. He asked the

Athenians: “Are you not ashamed that you pay attention to making as much money

as possible and also prestige and honour, but pay no attention to wisdom, truth and

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making your soul as good as possible?”152

Socrates saw the examined life as that

life which revises (utterly) its priorities. What matters to an examined life is

whether an act is good or bad, just or unjust, desirable or undesirable, moral or

immoral. The examined life sticks to the good and endless search for knowledge

(virtue) because eventually they yield happiness – the good. Thus, he remained

uncompromising about the result of holding unto self-examination. To be sure, in

his defence speech in court he refused to yield to the jury and others. He defended

his life in terms of what he claimed to be right, not minding that he knew that his

own stand constituted a confrontation with the values of the jury. Socrates rejected

every appeal to avoid death by saying that one should not bother about the

consequences of one’s actions, even death; what should be an issue to one is

whether one’s actions are just or unjust.153

In order to avoid unrighteousness he

accepted to die.154

When he was condemned by the jury, and was told to propose a

penalty for himself, he suggested that he be given a high civic honour which was

not intended to annoy the jury, rather he suggested that because there was no way

he would judge himself by the standards of his accusers and the jury.155

When he

was finally condemned to death, he declared that no harm can come to a good

person either in life or in death.156

And he ironically urged the jury to behave to his

(Socrates’) sons as they did to him.157

That was to criticize the jury for their attitude

of wrong judgment and to tell them to turn a new leaf, and also to show them that

they pretended to know when they were really ignorant.

Thus, Socrates declared that he would stand by his views even when they

brought him into conflict with the majority of the people, as long as his views were

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right. He concluded that being moral is what matters most and what gives

happiness. Hence, he declared: “It is better to be wronged than to do wrong; the

evil-doer harms himself more than the victim.”158

Socrates believed that the

wrongdoer is wretched and only virtue can over-turn the evildoer’s wretchedness

and give him true happiness.

One may ask: Are these claims all correct as Socrates did posit them? Is

happiness really rooted in virtue? Is it not seemingly correct that in real life, the

truly righteous persons suffer much more unhappiness and pain than the

unrighteous? How then should Socrates claim that virtue gives happiness? If

Socrates were to be a 2014 Nigerian, how would he define the relationship between

virtue and happiness in this country where people tend towards sadism and

masochism? Nigeria is a country where evil seems to be extolled and the good

abased, where impunity is the order of the day; and many people tend to cherish

them. Can we still follow Socrates to believe that a virtuous person is always

happy?

One thinks that Socrates is still right in saying that virtue is happiness and

the only thing that matters. The only confusion that needs to be unraveled is that

due to ignorance, evildoers think that evil gives happiness more than virtue. And

also, due to lack of knowledge the wrong-doer believes that he has the knowledge

of the good which he indeed lacks. Further still, due to ignorance, the evil-doer

fails to realize that in doing evil, he/she harms himself/herself, in the long run.

Ignorance deceives the wrong-doer to believing that evil is good by considering

only some trivial benefits which may accrue from the wrong act and neglecting the

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remote consequences of it. In fact, considering the current Nigerian socio-political,

economic, and politico-educational situation, Nigerians need the Socratic self-

examination and re-examination of their priorities, especially Nigerian educational

priorities. Everything about our secondary education needs re-examination and

overhauling now!

Nonetheless, it seems that Plato’s approach to examined life, control,

education and state management provides a recipe for totalitarianism. With his idea

of eugenics, censorship of art, outlawing of the family and paternalism, it seems

that the state intrudes into every area of life. Individuals in Plato’s world must be

subservient to the requirements of the state and are expected to sacrifice every

element of personal freedom to this end. Those who value individual liberty and

freedom of choice may find Plato’s vision an unattractive one.

iv. Merits of Plato’s Theory of Knowledge

The big question is: Was Plato right about education and knowledge? If yes,

what are his positive contributions?

Of course, many readers of Plato may fault him for making a wrong

distribution of human abilities. To be precise, Plato seems to believe that basically

most men are moronic and that only philosopher-kings can lead themselves and

others.159

This claim can be refuted by appealing to a normal distribution curve of

human abilities.

Also, some questions can be raised about Plato’s objections to what may be

called ‘noble lies’ and the role of arts which he called “mimesis” (imitation). It is

credible that even though, some products of arts can be said to be bad and need

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censoring, it does not imply that they are all bad and should be abandoned entirely.

However, as mentioned earlier Plato was doing ethics of art; he wanted artists to

imitate and communicate virtue only.

Again, some thinkers may raise their voices against Plato’s conception of

reason. Plato believed that reason culminates in certainty of the sort that he found

in geometry. He erroneously believed that just as the Pythagoreans did with

mathematics and geometry to understand the structure of the world, so can reason

take man to certainty about the form of the good. Plato seems to not have room for

normal human biases and fallibility, despite one’s resolve to do things right.

According to Plato, philosopher-kings have certainty of knowledge. This sounds

utopic. It is believable that even in geometry there are chances for mistakes and

errors, let alone human reasoning as a whole. One does not think that there are a

class of people who are ‘final authorities’ on matters of morals and politics, as well

as on mathematics or geometry. This is so because included in the notion of

reasonableness are principles of freedom and respect for persons, as possible

sources of points of view, which may be right. Hence, a certain kind of humility is

required for the acknowledgement of the possibility that ‘anyone’ including

oneself, may be in error. One may feel that there should be much more stress on

criticism, humility, and on the co-operative nature of reason; sound reasoning must

not be viewed just as the prerogative of a particular elite group. Thus, reason

cannot develop in a social vacuum; social life is mirrored in the individual and

vice-versa. It cannot be over-emphasized that Plato should be appreciated for

declaring that not everyone, in the state is fit for every job, hence people should

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develop their natural talents and education should be based on interest and ability

of both the learner and the teacher.

Notwithstanding, Plato’s positive contributions to education and

development of knowledge are innumerable. We are in post-modern era, the age of

science. Now, one may ask: How can Plato’s theory of Forms contribute to science

and technology? The answer is not far-fetched: Plato’s theory of forms contribute

to science because the whole of science is rooted in Metaphysics; science cannot do

without abstract knowledge like mathematics as the universe obeys mathematical

rules. Also, the essence of science is to better the lots of man in society. For man to

establish a good society, there should be a clear appreciation and application of

such concepts/virtues as justice, freedom, love, good and bad, moral and immoral,

etc. Such concepts can only be properly understood through abstractions, higher

reasoning or insights. Plato was right that values are objective; that they are not just

private preferences and that education by definition must be concerned with the

development of valuable/worthwhile state of mind. The role of education is to

change a worse state to a better state; just as the doctor brings change by the use of

drugs, the professional teacher does it by the correct use of words.160

He was also

right to say, that to achieve harmony of the soul, we must schedule our desires in a

certain way, and impose order of some sort on those desires.

Plato succeeded in saying that reason and passion are one (inseparable) and

that what might be called rational passions are real and important.161

Thus, a

reasonable person, according to Plato, should not only have the principle or

understanding of the Forms but also an awakened interest to have untiring passion

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to get to the bottom of things and do things well/right. This idea is beneficial

because in Nigerian secondary schools, for instance, where most students are

obsessed with grades and certificates, if Plato were to be a Nigerian secondary

school teacher, he would urge students to develop ‘rational passion’ for certificates

by pursuing real knowledge. This is because a beautiful certificate without real

knowledge is like fire without burning effect. Plato would therefore urge them to

eschew self-irrationalism, be consistent in virtuous life and sound reasoning.

It cannot be over-emphasized that Plato’s Socrates was the first to urge man

to examine himself, his and others’ claims about knowledge. This presupposes a

constant striving for clarity and understanding, a hatred of irrelevance, a loathing of

arbitrariness and a feeling of horror if one is not clear about something including

oneself.

It was as if Plato saw the trend of sex-mania (rape, fornication,

homosexuality, adultery) in this 21st century, among humans especially

youths/students, when he urged that sexual urges in boys and girls should be

restrained via stringent rules embedded in the education curriculum.162

Plato

emphasized that there should be integration of children’s passions into better

ventures rather than just utter restriction. This portrays Plato’s conception of the

body (of his dualism – the theory that there are two opposite principles in

everything) that negative passions can be managed well by directing them to

positive endeavours. Plato really addresses the issue of homosexuality. He said that

natural law permits a man to have sexual intercourse with a woman but not a man;

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even in animal world, males do not have sexual relations with males, because such

a thing is not natural.163

Plato advocated the use of control, punishment and compulsory education

for effective child education; hence paternalism.164

Paternalism means telling

people what is best; a style of government or management of an approach to

personal relationships, in which the desire to help, advise and protect may neglect

individual choice and personal responsibility.165

It means authoritarianism,

interventionism, protectivism and control. Further, paternalism means playing the

role of a father to someone. Note that Plato’s paternalism had its root in ancient

Greek way of life in which men acted as “father” to regulate and safeguard the

lives of women and children as defined by men.166

This has some implication for

Nigerian secondary education as Nigerian traditional education/society is

paternalistic. Thus, both Plato and Nigerian secondary education can work hand in

hand. Moreover, due to Plato’s belief in paternalism, he advocated compulsory

education for every child. This idea is very useful today considering the level of

delinquency among secondary school students in Nigeria. Unfortunately many

parents/guardians, teachers and education facilitators in Nigeria have lost the

philosophy of punishment in child training as emphasized earlier. Plato made it

clear that cases of disobedience, among children must be punished to deter the

culprit and others from such acts.167

While we appreciate Plato for kicking against

delinquency through punishment and compulsory education, one may also feel that

paternalism somewhat infringes on children’s rights and freedom. Plato may be

required to balance the equation of a child’s educational interests versus the

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educational interests of his/her parents/guardians for him/her. More so, paternalism

at times over-protects, neglecting the potentials, interst and feeling of those being

protected.

Plato believed that child education must start early enough and be rooted in

virtue education; a training which produces a keen desire in the child to become a

perfect citizen who knows how to rule and be ruled as justice demands.168

Plato

asserted that individual development comes through proper education and

training.169

In that light, Plato believed that education is superior to all

superstructure including politics, and that education should come before politics.170

Socrates disliked the idea of people entering politics before they gain proper

(political) education.171

One believes that this statement from Plato is very

important to Nigerian politicians and politicians-to-be, especially youths.

Ultimately, Plato’s education theory cannot be alienated from his ethics. This

is because his education theory is not only ‘utilitarian’ but also normative. Plato

developed three basic ‘utilitarian-cum-normative’ principles of education

(although, he did not use the word utilitarian). They are:

i. the aim of education is to produce sociable and happy citizens; hence education is

the development of virtuous character in a child or a learner;

ii. every child should be trained from an early age to help him/her to adapt the

norms of society; and

iii. the precise nature of the education that a child undergoes at a later stage should

be decided as far as possible by reference to the child’s interest, aptitude, and the

demands and needs of society.172

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Plato’s view on stressing children’s talents and interests in education is consistent

with modern thinking about individual differences vis-à-vis education/learning;

hence individualized teaching/learning and child-centered education.

v. Philosophy and Communication

Alfred North Whitehead anchored the footnotes of all philosophies to Plato.

Plato's thoughts are located at the core of most philosophical enterprise per se.

Now, the word ‘Communicate’ was coined from Latin ‘communicare,’ meaning

“to share.”173

Communication means to share information.174

In other words,

communication can be defined as the process of sharing idea, information and

messages with others at a particular time and place.175

It includes writing and

talking, non-verbal communication (such as countenances, body languages or

gestures, signs), visual communication (such as the use of images or pictures like

painting, photography, video or film), and electronic communication (telephone

calls, electronic mail, cable television, satellite broadcasts or the use of the

Internet).176

Thus, people communicate interpersonally and through communication

systems which transmit messages among large number of people.

Communication and philosophy are closely related as both try to shape

human behaviour, transmit knowledge, maintain good life and social values.

Communication being a vital part of personal life, societal living, business,

education, and any situation in which people encounter others cannot do without

philosophy because philosophy is light to the right path to good success in any

human endeavour. Communication and art are also related because the essential

function of art is the expression of emotions and ideas. The concept of expression

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has family resemblances with concepts of communication, articulation and

elucidation.177

The growth of film, radio, and television in the 1900’s raised some

philosophical questions about communication. Philosophers have been concerned

about the impact of the social media on the way people think. To be precise, the

impact of media violence, corruptible communication and misinformation on

children, adolescents, the ignorant, and the uncritical mind nowadays through the

social media is a source of worry to many. Research on audience behaviour and the

use of media by individuals and groups is a crucial task today. There is the urgent

need to ascertain how contemporary social media shape people’s understanding

and behaviours. This is in line with the ostensible fact that the social media have

some ever growing roles to play in the vast field of human education. Put in

another way, the media are meant to teach or instruct the masses, broaden and

diversify their mental capacity positively. The contents of media productions and

presentations must be in line with educational criteria.178

The media are used to

complement established educational institutions in fighting illiteracy, ignorance,

corruption, double standard, wickedness, and other vices. But for the media to

effectively perform this role of educating the masses through communication, all

media practitioners and communicators must first of all be well educated so as to

be able to move from facts to values, from subjectivity to objectivity, from

particular to universal, and from mere creation of awareness to teaching good,

worthwhile lessons. Very importantly, the education needed to be given to media

practitioners must take philosophy into account because it is only the knowledge of

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philosophy that can equip them to be reflectively critical in their approaches to

knowledge, life, and information dissemination. With the help of philosophy,

communicators will be able to ascertain and design good communication in order

to promote the good life.

As mentioned earlier, Plato, our guide, urged that right communication be

made, whether in teaching, picture, music, dancing, and drama.179

Plato argued that

children should be controlled and restrained from ugly style of music, dance, or

drama until they are mature, enough to be able to loathe the bad products of

communication media.180

Teachers must be compelled to learn correct information

and teach them to children.181

This suffices to say that not all communication of

thought is education. Some communications of thought are bad and corruptible and

can lead children, the ignorant and the uncritical mind astray; hence need

censoring. This implies that true communication and true education must be

worthwhile, and connote positive information. True education makes people

develop and use effectively the three domains of education: Cognitive,

Psychomotor, and Affective; these domains are referred to as the 3Hs in education:

the Head, the Hand, and the Heart. Therefore, a truly educated person is a

functional person who is fully developed in those domains and is very effective in

their usage. A truly educated person is also one who pursues knowledge and good

life (virtue) as a life-long exercise. That is why every form of information

dissemination must be done with care in order for people to be given only good

information in society (especially in Nigeria) to be able to achieve micro-

development which culminates in macro-development. If Nigeria can adapt these

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measures, she will have useful citizens and by implication, Nigerian secondary

education/schools will be in the right track.

In sum, communication is made possible through art and the media.

Philosophy plays the watch-dog role on both art and communication to ensure that

they promote the good life by establishing truth and good norm. It should be

emphasized that Nigeria needs this harnessing role of philosophy on arts and

communication today. Many Nigerians, especially youths in our secondary schools

are so gullible these days that they do not care to distinguish the real from the

unreal, the desired from the desirable, what is from what ought to be. It seems that

most things about our contemporary art production is evil and negative. Many

children and even adults in Nigeria today seem to perceive the negative contents of

art productions and communication as the ‘rule rather than the exception.’ Due to

the importance of artistic education and entertainment, and indispensable nature of

communication, they need to be scrutinized and censored properly. Plato actually

raised a serious question/problem about art and communication that has bearing to

virtually every human endeavour especially in this contemporary/post-modern age,

which needs immediate attention. The entire business of secondary education in

Nigeria needs philosophy, by implication, it needs Plato’s education principles.

Now, having looked carefully at Plato’s theory of knowledge, it is pertinent

to consider Nigerian secondary education in the next chapter. This is to enable a

clear grasp of the nature, stance, philosophy and problems of Nigerian secondary

education and discover the connection if any between Plato’s education culture and

Nigerian education culture.

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ENDNOTES

1.

Brain Duignan ed., The 100 Most Influential Philosophers of all Time

(New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010), 37-39.

2. Plato, Letters Book VII, 326a-b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by Glenn. .R. Morrow. (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company Inc., 1997).

3. Plato, Letters Book VII, 324c-e, 325a-e

4. Plato, Epinomis, 977b-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by Richard D. Mckirahan, Jr. (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

Inc., 1997).

5. W.H.D. Rouse, “Preface.” Great Dialogues of Plato (New York: Mentor

Books, New American Library Inc., 1956).

6. W.H.D. Rouse, “Preface.” Great Dialogues of Plato (New York: Mentor

Books, New American Library Inc., 1956).

7. W.H.D. Rouse, “Preface.” Great Dialogues of Plato (New York: Mentor

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Translated by C.D.C. Reeve (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

10. Baird Robert M. “Plato.” Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond,

W.A. Microsoft Coropration, 2008.

11. Amelie Oksenberg Rorty ed., Philosophers on Education: New Historical

Perspective (London: Routledge, 2005), 13-15. sv: “Socratic Education” by Paul

Wooduff.

12. Plato, Protagoras, 324b-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by Stanley Lombardo and Karen Bell (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company Inc., 1997).

13. Brain Duignan ed., The 100 Most Influential Philosophers of all Time

(New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010), 37-39.

14. Plato, Phaedrus, 251a-e; Parmenides, 132a-e. John M. Cooper ed; Plato

Complete Works. Translated by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff; Mary

Louise Gill and Paul Ryan (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

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Ideas., 6th Edition (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 38-40.

17. Randal Curren ed., A Companion to the Philosophy of Education (Oxford:

Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2003), 10. sv: “ The Socratic Movement” by Paul

Woodruff.

18. Amelie Oksenberg Rorty ed., Philosophers on Education: New Historical

Perspective (London: Routledge, 2005), 13-15. sv: “Socratic Education” by Paul

Woodruff.

19. Charles H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2004), 7.

20. Brain Duignan ed., The 100 Most Influential Philosophers of all Time

(New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010), 37-39.

21. Brooke Noel Moore and Kenneth Bruder, Philosophy: the Power of

Ideas., 6th edition, (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 38-40.

22. Julia Annas, Plato: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 2003), 24.

23. Brooke Noel Moore and Kenneth Bruder, Philosophy: the Power of

Ideas., 6th edition, (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 38-40.

24. Amelie Oksenberg Rorty ed., Philosophers on Education: New Historical

Perspective (London Routledge, 2005), 30-31. sv: “Plato’s Council on Education”

by Zhang Loshan.

25. Amelie Oksenberg Rorty ed., Philosophers on Education: New Historical

Perspective (London Routledge, 2005), 30-31. sv: “Socratic Education” by Paul

Woodruff.

26. Philip Strokes, Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers (New York: Enchanted

Lion Books, 2006), 23.

27. Brooke Noel Moore and Kenneth Bruder, Philosophy: the Power of

Ideas., 6th edition, (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 36-37.

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Philosophy., 3rd

edition (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2003), 587. sv: “Ancient

Greek Philosophy” by Robert Wardy.

29. Simon Blackburn, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy., 2

nd edition

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 111.

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257.

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34. Charles H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue, 191-192.

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36. Nel Noddings, Philosophy of Education, 13.

37. Plato, Euthyphro, 5d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

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38. Nel Noddings, Philosophy of Education (Colorado: Westview Press,

1998), 13.

39. Plato, Charmides 173b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by Rosamond Kent Sprague (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

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40. Plato, Republic, Book IV, 430 a-e. John M. Cooper ed; Plato Complete

Works. Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

Inc., 1997).

41. Plato, Laws, Book XII, 965c-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

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42. Plato Republic, Book III, 402a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

Inc., 1997).

43. Plato, Laws, Book I, 643c-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.,

1997).

44. Plato, Meno, 88a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

45. Plato, Exyxias, 404d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

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46. Plato, Republic, Book VI, 508a-e, Republic, Book VII, 534b-c. John M.

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47. Plato, Philebus, 48c, Second Alcibiades, 143a-b. John M. Cooper ed.,

Plato Complete Works. Translated by Dorothea Frede, and Anthony Kenny

(Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

48. Lauren S. Bahr and Benard Johnson eds., Collier’s Encyclopedia (New

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51. Lauren S. Bahr and Benard Johnson eds., Collier’s Encyclopedia, 144.

52. Lauren S. Bahr and Benard Johnson eds., Collier’s Encyclopedia, 144.

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by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

54. Plato, Laws, Book II, 653a-b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.,

1997).

55. Plato, Laws, Book II, 653a-b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.,

1997).

56. Plato, Laws, Book XII, 965d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.,

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57. Lauren S. Bahr and Benard Johnson eds., Collier’s Encyclopedia (New

York: P.F Collier, 2000), 141-145., sv: “Platonic Philosophy” by John Wild.

58. Plato, Laws, Book XII, 965d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

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73. Plato, Symposium, 201a-e, 202a-e, 203a-e, 204a-e, 205a-e, 206a-e, 207a-e.

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75. Plato, Symposium, 201a-e, 202a-e, 203a-e, 204a-e, 205a-e, 206a-e, 207a-e.

76. Plato, Symposium, 201a-e, 202a-e, 203a-e, 204a-e, 205a-e, 206a-e, 207a-e.

77. Plato, Republic, Book III, 394-395. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

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78. Plato, Republic Book X, 603a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

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79. Samuel Enoch Stumpf, Philosophy: History and Problems (New York:

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82. Plato, Laws, Book VII, Chapter 802 c-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

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83. Plato, Laws, Book Vll, Chapter 802 c-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

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84. Plato, Laws, Book Vll, Chapter 811e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

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85. The World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago: World Book Inc., 2004), 567-

569. sv: “Plato” by Ivan Soll.

86. The World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago: World Book Inc., 2004), 567-

569. sv: “Plato” by Ivan Soll.

87. Thomas Mautner, The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy (London:

Penguin Books, 1999), 428.

88. Thomas Mautner, The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy, 428.

89. Plato, Republic, Book III, 397. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

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90. Robert Audi ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy., 2nd edition

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 232-233. sv: “Dialectic” by

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91. Robert Audi ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd edition,

232-233.

92. J.O. Urmson ed., The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and

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93. Simon Blackburn, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy., 2nd edition

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94. Plato, Theaetetus, 149a-e, 150a-e, 151a-e, 160a-e, 209a-e, 210a-e. John

M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works. Translated by M.J. Levett and Myles

Burnyeat (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

95. Plato, Meno, 70a-c, 71a-c, 72a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

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96. Plato, Republic, Book VII, 520b, Cratylus, 390c, Statesman, 301b, Rival

Lovers 13a-b, Sophist, 253d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

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97. J.O. Urmson ed., The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and

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98. Aristotle, Prior Analytic, Book I, Chapter I, 24a 10-24b 17. Jonathan

Barnes ed., The Complete Works of Aristotle, 1. Translated by Jonathan Barnes

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99. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason. Vasilis Politic ed.,

(London:Everyman, 1993), 233-237.

100. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hegel’s Dialectic: Five Hermeneutical Studies.

Translated by P. Christopher Smith (London: Yale University Press, 1976), 5-34.

101. Tom Rockmore, Marx after Marxism: the Philosophy of Karl Marx

(Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), 5-8.

102. Lauren S. Bahr and Benard Johnson eds., Collier’s Encyclopedia (New

York: P.F Collier, 2000), 141-145. sv: “Platonic Philosophy” by John Wild.

103. Simon Blackburn, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy., 2nd edition

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 99.

104. Plato, Republic, Book VII, 533a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

Inc., 1997).

105. Plato, Laws, Book VII, 788d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

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106. Samuel Amaele, Understanding the Philosophy of Education, (Ibadan:

Bounty Press Ltd, 2007), 46-49.

107. Plato, Laws, Book VII, 788d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company Inc., 1997).

108. Plato, Laws, Book VII, 809a-e.

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109. Plato, Republic, Book II, 376e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

Inc., 1997).

110. Plato, Republic, Book II, 376e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

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111. Plato, Laws, Book VI, 766a-e, 764c-d.

112. Plato, Republic, Book IV, 425a-e, Republic, Book II, 377a-e, Laws Book

VII 816d-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works. Translated by G.M.A.

Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

113. Plato, Republic, Book VII, 536e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

Inc., 1997).

114. Plato, Laws, Book VII, 794c. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company Inc., 1997).

115. Plato, Laws, Book VII, 805e, 764d, 813e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

Complete Works. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett

Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

116. Plato, Republic, Book VII, 536d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company

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117. Plato, Republic, Book VII, 536d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by G.M.A. Grube.

118. Samuel Amaele, Understanding the Philosophy of Education (Ibadan:

Bounty Press Ltd, 2007), 46-49.

119. Plato, Laws, Book VII, 804d-e, 805c-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

Complete Works. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett

Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

120. Samuel Amaele, Understanding the Philosophy of Education (Ibadan:

Bounty Press Ltd, 2007), 46-49.

121. Plato, Apology, 28a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.,

1997).

122. Plato, Phaedo, 65a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

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123. Plato, Cratylus, 420b-c. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated CDC Reeve (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1997).

124. Plato, Sophist, 254a-b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated Nicholas P White (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.,

1997).

125. Gutek Gerald. L. “History of Education.” Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009

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126. Plato, Protagoras, 361a-e, 330a-e, 357a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

Complete Works. Translated by Stanley Lombardo and Karen Bell (Cambridge:

Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

127. Plato, Republic, Book IV, 437a-e, 439d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

Complete Works. Translated by G.M.A Grube and C.D.C Reeve (Cambridge:

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128. Plato, Protagoras, 360d. The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by Stanley

Lombardo and Karen Bell (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1993).

129. Plato, Republic, Book IV, 442a-c. The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by

Benjamin Jowett (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1993).

130. Charles H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2004), 224-226.

131. Plato, Meno, 87d-89a. Great Dialogues of Plato. Translated by W.H.D

Rouse (New York: New American Library, Inc., 1956).

132. Plato, Euthydemus, 281e-282a. The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by

Benjamin Jowett (Chicago: Encyclopedia. Britannica, Inc., 1993).

133. Plato, Protagoras, 356a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works

Translated by Stanley Lombardo and Karen Bell (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company, 1997).

134. Plato, Protagoras, 356a-e. M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Work.

135. Charles H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2004), 224-226.

136. Plato, Republic Book IV, 442a-c. The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by

Benjamin Jowett (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1993).

137. Plato, Symposium, 205a-d. Great Dialogues of Plato. Translated by

W.H.D. Rouse (New York: New American Library, Inc., 1956).

138. Charles H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2004), 155.

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139. Plato, Apology, 38a. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works,

Translated by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

140. Plato, Apology, 38a. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

141. Plato, Apology, 21e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

142. Plato, Second Alcibiades, 143b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works Translated by Anthony Kenny (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company,

1997).

143. Plato, Apology, 26a. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

144. Plato, Laches, 187e-188b; Protagoras, 333c. The Dialogues of Plato.

Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 1993).

145. Plato, Crito, 46b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works. Translated

by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company 1997).

146. Plato, Sophist, 230a-231b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works

Translated by Nicolas P. White (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

147. Plato, Apology, 25c-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

148. Plato, Charmides, 165a-167a. The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by

Benjamin Jowett (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1993).

149. Plato, Charmides, 165a-167a. The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by

Benjamin Jowett.

150. Plato, Charmides, 171d-175e. The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by

Benjamin Jowett.

151. Plato, Apology, 41c-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

152. Plato, Apology, 29d-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

153. Plato, Apology, 28b-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

154. Plato, Apology, 39a-b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

155. Plato, Apology, 36b-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

156. Plato, Apology, 41c-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

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157. Plato, Apology, 42a-b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

158. Plato, Crito, 49a-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by G.M.A. Grube (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company 1997).

159. Plato, Republic Book VI, 473a-e; Book VII, 520a-e. John M. Cooper ed.,

Plato Complete Works. Translated by G.M.A Grube and C.D.C Reeve (Cambridge:

Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

160. Plato, Theaetetus, 167a. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by M.J Levett and Myles Burnyeat (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company, 1997).

161. R.S Peters, Education and the Education of Teachers (London: Taylor &

Francis e-Library, 2005), 81.

162. Plato, Laws, Book VIII, 836a-b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company, 1997).

163. Plato, Laws, Book VIII, 836a-b. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works.

164. Plato, Laws, Book IX, 854d-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

Works. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company, 1997).

165. Microsoft ® Encarta ® Premium Dictionary, 2009.

166. Thomas R. Martin, “Ancient Greece.” Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009)

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Works.

168. Plato, Laws, Book I, 643e-644a. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete

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169. Plato, Theaetetus, 186c. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by M.J Levett and Myles Burnyeat (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing

Company, 1997).

170. Plato, Gorgias, 527d-e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by Donald J. Zeyl (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

171. Plato, Alcibiades, 118b-c. John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by D.S. Hutchison (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

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172. Robbin Barrow, Plato Utilitarianism, and Society, Volume 3 (London:

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180. Plato, Laws, Book Vll, Chapter 802 c-d. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

Complete Works.

181. Plato, Laws, Book Vll, Chapter 811e. John M. Cooper ed., Plato

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131

CHAPTER FOUR

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

1. What is Secondary Education?

Secondary education is a programme of public education immediately

following elementary schooling.1 Section 4 of the National Policy on Education

2004 contains provision for Secondary Education in Nigeria which is defined as the

form of education children receive after primary education and before the tertiary

stage of education.2 In other words, in Nigeria, secondary education is that form of

education suitable for children who have completed primary education and which

is given in secondary schools.3 This definition covers the form of education given

in schools which are described as Secondary Grammar, Secondary Modern,

Secondary Commercial, Secondary Technical/Vocational, Science Secondary

Schools, Private Secondary Schools, Army Day Secondary School, etc. Some types

of secondary education, such as vocational schooling, are terminal and prepare the

student for employment upon graduation. Others lead to advanced training in

colleges of education, polytechnics, and universities. In Nigeria, secondary

education includes the junior and the senior high schools.

The purpose of secondary education is to expand knowledge of subjects

already studied, including the systematic study of literature, foreign and local

languages, social studies, and other subjects essential for physical and intellectual

development and to prepare students as future citizens. The age group of secondary

education ranges between 11 years plus, to between 15 years and 18, or a little

more.4 This is the age at which a child has the fullest freedom to demonstrate

132

initiative. Secondary education is the time when a child develops his/her

independent outlook on life; the stage at which he/she makes a foundation of what

he/she becomes in life because students choose career in secondary school.5 It is an

age during which the child reaches puberty (with its pressurizing characteristics);

an age when, as a social animal, he/she progressively develops into adulthood; and

as a human person begins to feel mature. Indeed, secondary education age is the

stage at which a child undergoes the greatest changes in his/her life span,

physiologically, emotionally, as well as psychologically. Thus, it is a very

important stage/level in the process of learning, education, and child development.

In fact, it is the stage to which greatest attention should be turned to by

educationists, parents, family-members, community, the state, and even oneself. In

Nigeria’s 6-3-3-4 and 9-3-4 systems of education, secondary education is the

‘chain’ or the ‘bridge’ between primary and tertiary education; hence secondary

education is the ‘hub’ of education in Nigeria.

In sum, in Nigeria, we have Junior Secondary Schools, Senior Secondary

Schools and Technical Secondary Schools. Junior Secondary Schools provide the

type of education called Basic Education II (Note that in 9-3-4 system of education,

the Basic Education I is Primary Education). The length of the programme is 3

years and the age level is between 12 to 15 years. The certificate awarded is Junior

School Certificate, now called Basic Education Certificate.

Senior Secondary School provides Senior Secondary Education and the

length of the Programme is 3 years while the age level is 15 to 18 years. The

certificate awarded is Senior School Certificate (SSC), which comprises three

133

equivalents: West African Senior School Certificate (WASSC), National

Examinations Council Certificate (NECO), and National Business and Technology

Examination Board Certificate (NABTEB).6

Technical Secondary Education has six years of length of programme and

the age level is 12 to 18 years. The certificate awarded is Senior School Certificate

(SSC) and NABTEB.

2. Aims of Secondary Education in Nigeria

The aims and objectives of secondary education in Nigeria as set down in the

2004 National Policy on Education are as follows:

i. “to prepare the child for useful living within the society;

ii. to inculcate the spirit of self-reliance, industry and versatility in the students;

iii. to diversify the curriculum to cater for the differences in talents, opportunities

and roles possessed by or open to students after secondary education;

iv. to impress on the students their privileges and responsibilities as citizens of

Africa.

v. to develop and project our culture, arts and languages;

vi. to raise a generation of people who can think for themselves, have respect for

the views and feelings of other people and respect the dignity of labour and

appreciate these values specified under our broad national aims, and live as good

citizens;

vii. to equip students to live effectively in our modern age of science and

technology;

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viii. to foster the unity of Nigeria and emphasize the ties and common elements

which unite us in our diversity; and

ix. to afford the increasing number of primary school pupils the opportunity for

education of higher quality, irrespective of sex, social, religious or ethnic

background;

x. to develop a sense of spiritual and moral values, integrity and uprightness in the

students;

xi. to inspire students with the desire for achievement, excellence, self-

improvement, and continual self-education, both at school and in later life.”7

In order to be able to achieve these objectives, the Nigerian government

maintains that:

1. secondary education should be six years and be given in two stages, Junior and

Senior, each is three years duration, as explained in the previous page;

2. both Junior and Senior shall be in the same premises;

3. the junior secondary will be both prevocational and academic as Basic Education

II;

4. students should study, at least, one of the three major Nigerian languages (Igbo,

Hausa, Yoruba) in addition to English Language – Nigeria’s lingua franca;

5. government’s control of secondary schools shall involve regulating opening of

schools, supervision and inspection of all secondary schools regularly and ensuring

the provision of well qualified teaching staff, and generally ensuring that all

secondary schools follow government approved curricular and conform to the

national policy on education.8

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3. Problems of Secondary Education in Nigeria

As mentioned earlier, Plato believed that the fairest thing that can be given to

a child is education. This is because education is that act or circumstance that has a

formative impact on the mind, character, or physical ability of the individual. One

is what one knows. The preponderant role of education in overall development of

any society cannot be over-emphasized. No wonder, Martin Luther King Junior

says that the level of development of any society is not determined by the number

of wealthy men in such society but by the number of educated people in that

society.9

It is in recognition of this that Nigerian education is structured to start from

early childhood (primary) through child development of adolescence (in secondary

school) to adulthood (University). Child development is the process through which

children change as they grow, from a qualitative rather than a merely quantitative

stand point.10

Child development is a serious business because children are youths

today and adults tomorrow: “Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent,” says Pearl

S. Buck.11

Education as a concept has ‘normative implication’; it has the criterion

built into it, that something worthwhile should be achieved.12

Education implies

that something (knowledge) worthwhile is being or has been intentionally

transmitted in a morally acceptable manner.13

Now, the questions needed to ask about Nigerian education, especially her

secondary education are: What are the worthwhile things (knowledge) to be

transmitted?; Is the manner of transmission of secondary education in Nigeria

morally acceptable or not?; Is Nigeria in the right direction or does she need to

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change her method?; Can Nigeria boast of fruitful and positive results from her

secondary educational objectives, aims and policies?; Why is it that the 6-3-3-4

system of education is now changed to 9-3-4 system?; Why is it that (it seems) the

6-3-3-4 system does not work well in Nigeria but it does work well in the United

States where Nigeria borrowed it from in 1982? Obviously, Nigerian Education

Policy of 2004 is beautiful but it seems that this beautiful policy is faulty, as it does

not really reflect what Nigeria has on ground. Is it the implementation that is faulty

or something else is wrong?

The fact is that Nigeria’s secondary education system over the years has

shown signs of decay. If one takes time enough to consider the quantity and quality

of the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective developments of one’s wards and

other children around one, one will discover that much is left to be desired. It was

like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigerian former President) saw this whole problem

ahead while advocating the type of education for Nigeria when he concluded: “By

education, I do not mean simply learning. I mean training the Head, the Hand, and

the Heart; training in Mind, in Skill, and in Morals that help to make one socially

efficient.”14

Indeed, the present secondary school system in Nigeria has fallen short

of this standard of education according to Azikiwe. This is true because many

educational ‘products’ of the system and their ‘manufacturers’ lack competence in

effective and desirable use of cognitive, psychomotor and affective abilities. Many

so-called educated Nigerians, especially secondary school leavers, lack the know-

how and do-how to back their paper qualifications, and also lack morality or

desirable inclination to promote a caring and humane society.

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It is important to note at this point that the Nigerian secondary education

system has expanded tremendously in magnitude or demography since the

attainment of political independence in 1960. According to the United Nations

Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute of Statistics,

the value for secondary education students in Nigeria is 9, 056, 768 as of 2014.15

This is the number of students enrolled in public and private schools. Nigeria has 5,

100 secondary schools.16

The value for secondary education teachers in Nigeria is

273, 781 as at 2014.17

This number includes full-time and part-time teachers.

Nigeria also has 169 Technical Colleges with enrolment of 43, 354.18

According to

the National Policy on Education, Technical Colleges are expected to feed the

Polytechnics while secondary schools are to feed universities and colleges of

education.19

In March 2001, the Federal Executive Council approved a National

Information Technology (IT) Policy, whose implementation started April that same

year, with the establishment of the National Information Technology Development

Agency (NITDA), charged with the implementation responsibility.20

In spite of all these growth and development, Nigeria’s secondary education

has not been without problems and aberrations; Nigerian secondary education

system right now is close to absolute collapse.21

The national literacy rate is

estimated at 57 per cent while about 49 per cent of the teaching force is

unqualified.22

The delivery of secondary education in Nigeria has suffered from

years of neglect, aggravated by inadequate attention to policy frameworks within

the sector. Due to poor funding, our secondary schools lack infrastructures like

classrooms, laboratories, sports facilities, libraries, etc. United Nations

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Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) recommends that

teacher-student ratio is one teacher to 25 students per class, but here in Nigeria, one

teacher may be handling a class of about 60 to 100 students. The Information

Technology (IT) Policy is yet to be felt seriously in our secondary schools, since

2001 when it was made. Concerned education stakeholders and good spirited

Nigerians have called for the upward revision of our budget to meet the 26 per cent

(to be allotted to education) as recommended by the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In 2012 annual budget, the sum

of N400.15 billion representing only 8.43 percent of the total budget was allotted to

education.23

Even the budget on education of some years back were better than

2012. The figure below shows Nigeria’s budget on education between 1994 and

1996.24

Year Total Budget

(Billion Naira)

Total for Education

(Billion Naira)

Percentage of total

Allocation to Education

1994 69.30 10.30 14.87

1995 111.45 12.70 11.42

1996 127.47 15.35 12.33

In 1999 and 2000, Nigeria allotted 11.13 per cent and 8.30 percent of her annual

budget to education respectively.25

In 2001, it was 7.0 while in 2002 is was further

reduced to 5.9%, and in 2003, it was 1.83%.26

Further, it was saddening that in

2012, on the average, Nigeria spent less than 9 per cent of her annual budget on

education when some smaller African countries spent as follows: Botswana 19.0%,

Swaziland 24.6%, Lesotho 17.0%, South Africa 25.8%, Cote d’lvoire 30.0%,

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Burkina Faso 16.8%, Ghana 31%, Kenya 23.0%, Uganda 27.0%, Tunisia 17.0%,

and Morocco 17.7%.27

However, the 2013 Nigerian budget was described as budget of hope

because the Federal Government of Nigeria seemed to have given priority to

education. Some key allocations in the 2013 Nigerian budget are as follows: Works

N183.5 billion, Power N74.26 billion, EDUCATION N426.52 billion (9% of

Nigeria’s 2013 budget) Health N279.23 billion, Defence N348.91 billion, Police

N319.65 billion, Agriculture and Rural Development N81.41 billion.28

This huge

allocation on education received accolade from various quarters in the country.

Many said that it was the first time education was accorded the priority it deserves

in the budget. But many others (including me) were pessimistic because over the

years Nigerian budgetary provisions were never implemented as provided. The

pessimists believed that while they applauded the government for the whooping

amount of money put on education in 2013, they would keep their fingers crossed

and see the implementation of the budget. 2013 has come and gone and nothing has

changed, instead things are worse. 2014 has come and the story is the same,

especially as it is electioneering campaign year. As it were, Nigerian politicians are

only interested in retaining their offices and diversion of money meant for

development of Nigeria into their private accounts.

Nigerian secondary schools have problem of irrelevant curriculum. In 2014,

many Nigerian teachers still define atom as the smallest particle of an element.

Perhaps, such teachers do not know that an atom is composed of three sub-

particles, namely Proton, Neutron, and Electron. Thus, an atom may not be

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regarded as the smallest particle of an element any longer. After 53 years of

independence, students in many secondary schools in Nigeria are still taught that

Mungo Park discovered the River Niger. Some may argue that such lessons may be

History but such History is absurd. Well, he may have discovered it for the

Westerners, but not for Nigerians who were fishing and collecting water from the

River Niger before Mungo Park came to Nigeria. Many science teachers in

Nigerian secondary schools today (2014), still describe matter as having three

states: Solid, Liquid, and Gas. They do not seem to know that Plasma is now the

fourth state of matter because it occupies space; even though it behaves like gas, it

is not gas, it has its own unique nature quite different from gas. Some English

Language teachers still teach students that there are eight parts of speech: that

exclamation/interjection is a part of speech. They do not seem to know that

exclamation or interjection does not have grammatical function in a sentence; that

is why it is no more described as a part of speech.

Again, many Physics and Geography teachers still teach students the

heliocentric theory (that the earth rotates round the sun). Nevertheless, the latest

theory is the Relativity theory (Albert Einstein’s theory of the universe on the

principle that all movement is relative; hence the movement of the planets are

relative to each other), etc. Our indigenous languages (Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba,

etc) are thrown to the dust in most of our secondary schools. It is observed that the

last paper of every WAEC or NECO organized examinations is always our dear

Nigerian languages; to show how less important they are? Students and teachers

joke with them. We forget the power of language over consciousness; that the

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secret of being is rooted in language. However, one thinks that WAEC is turning a

new leaf because the first paper of 2013 May/June West African Senior School

Certificate Examination (WASSCE), written on Wednesday April 10, 2013, was

the Nigerian languages: Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba. In addition, in the 2014

May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination, the Nigerian

Languages were written on Wednesday, 2 April, 2014 as the second paper. That is

a good development. Moreover, in many secondary schools in Nigeria, students are

punished if they speak these indigenous languages. And many Nigerians, including

teachers, emphasize that intelligence hinges on English Language speaking (NOT

even mastery) only. It is a fact that language is arbitrary and no language is

superior to another. So, if intelligence is judged by language speaking only, then

the Whiteman is not intelligent because he cannot speak Igbo language, for

instance. Students are not motivated well and that is why many of them dread

science subjects, especially mathematics. They see science as magic of the

Whiteman that needs special esotericism.

Furthermore, it seems that the missing element in our secondary school

today is “thinking student” or more accurately, “critically thinking student.” Many

students do not want to study or learn. They look for chances to goof off, clown

around, disrupt classes by playing music with phones, doing pinging, 2-go, face

book and other distractive acts. Most of them would rather talk about music,

movies/films, fashion, football (English Premier League and European Champions

League), sex, cultism, money, food, fame, cars, egoism, drug, fun, naughtiness,

politics, pleasure, power, and liberty. Most students are obsessed with grades and

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certificates, and so they do not care about learning and knowledge itself. They are

impatient and lax. The most recent god for most of them is money and sex, and

NOT the rumbling voice of parents or God, calling for order or ‘sleeping in the

library.’ Many of them believe they can succeed or understand everything without

thinking or working; so, they neither think nor reason, anything that occurs to

them, they do. Many of them change school often to be able to jump to a higher

class. Various school authorities do not bother about transfer certificates any more.

Worse still, transfer certificates are forged. Most students nowadays never try

figuring things out themselves; they want to be told everything, yet they want

permissiveness and indulgence. They tend to hate directives and correction. They

love academic dishonesty; they cherish and pursue pseudo-success and neglect real

intelligence; to them success is all about certificate and good grade. Many of them

think only of their own desires and points of view, ignoring the need and

perspectives of their mates, family, and society/Nigeria. Therefore, whenever

parents, school authority or societies disagree with them, they see it as being

unreasonable, unfair and domineering. Many a student terrorizes staff, other

students and even their parents nowadays. During my time as Acting Principal of

Paraclete College, Eha-Azuabor, I expelled, I remember, about 35 students within

two years, for various serious offences. A good number of secondary school

students smoke and eat cannabis. Many of them form dangerous cliques and

dangerous secret groups?

What is more? If one takes time to visit most secondary schools in Nigeria,

one is likely to see useless inscriptions of useless and ugly students’ nicknames

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(like: “Slow dog”, “Snake”, “Cocaine”, “Headache”, “Obituary”, “Scorpion”,

“Killer”, “Bad bad”, “Frog”, “Imbecile”, “Jango: the animal: the stupid,” “TBT:

ten baskets of trouble”, “Mr. Poison”, “Bomber”, “Osama”, “Bullet”, “Hammer”,

“Sexy”, “Anus”, “Barbed wire”, “Naked wire”, “Vulture”, “Dead Man”, "War",

etc), on the walls and rafters of the school buildings. These show how

disorganized, arrogant and naughty these kids are. Many students dress very badly

to school, go to school late on daily basis, go home before the end of school hours,

and even stay away from school with impunity. Even when many of them attend

school, they do not stay in class and do not write tests and internal examinations;

hence they do not have any termly reports of their academic performances.

Unfortunately, many parents do not follow up their wards to know their activities

in school. However, many of these students in question are intractable and

intransigent.

Examination malpractices and academic dishonesty have become domestic

slogans in Nigeria. The adverse effect of examination malpractices is felt in all

sectors of the economy. Examination malpractices mean the massive and

unprecedented abuse of rules and regulations pertaining to internal and public

examinations, beginning from the setting of the examinations, their marking and

grading to the release of the results, and issuance of certificates. Thus, examination

malpractices, inter alia, include leakage of examination papers, bribing of the bank

officials or police officers who are custodians of the examination question papers,

bribing of script markers and graders, alteration of grades by officials,

impersonation during examination, inappropriate examination environment (e.g.,

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presence of intruders, close sitting arrangement, etc), use of unapproved electronic

gadgets like phones, forgery of certificates, use of guns to intimidate invigilators

and supervisors, seduction of examination officers by female students, etc. All

these have made the results of our public examination suspect and lose value.

Worse still, in Nigeria today, there are WAEC and NECO Examination Centres

known as “Miracle Centres” where virtually, no examination is conducted, yet

students are issued with excellent certificates; certificates are forged for students

there.

On 15 January 2014, I interviewed the incumbent Head of Planning,

Research and Statistics (PRS) Udi Educational Zone of Enugu State, Dr. Michael

Ndidiamaka Ozofor about the state of secondary education in Nigeria. Ozofor is

also a Senior Lecturer and the current (2014) Head of Department of Mathematics

and Computer Science in Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, and lectures in the

Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT). He answered without

mincing words that secondary education in Nigeria is ‘dead.’ He narrated some of

his sad experiences as WAEC supervisor, which caused his opt-out from West

African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) supervisions. He told

me that in some examination centres, he saw students cheating/spraying the

answers from inside the ceiling of the examination hall, from the bush around and

were armed, ready to shoot anyone who disrupted their ‘future.’ They claimed that

cheating held their future and warned Ozofor to stay clear or be ‘sanctioned’ there

and then. “The worst was that if you wrote a report as a supervisor, nothing would

be done about it by superior authorities because ‘many hands’ were involved in

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examination malpractices,”29

he said. Thus, people implicated in these abuses

include students, teachers, school authorities, parents, communities, bank officials,

and the police, officials of public examination bodies in Nigeria (WAEC, NECO,

and NABTEB) and even some Ministry of Education officials.

Many principals whom I interviewed including the very Rev. Fr. John

Martin Chikeani (St. Patrick’s College, Obollo Eke), and Mr. C.C Onah

(Community Secondary School, Imilike-Agu), both in Udenu Local Government

Area of Enugu State, told me that the problem of secondary education in Nigeria is

a ‘systemic failure.’30

Fr. Chikeani told me that many teachers in St. Patrick’s

Obollo Eke voluntarily went on transfer and many students left too, immediately he

left St Theresa’s College, Nsukka to come to St Partick’s in 2009, because they

dreaded his stringent measures; they were not willing to do things right.31

In Ekiti State during the 2008 May/June (WAEC/NECO) Senior School

Certificate Examinations (SSCE) teachers and corps-members in collaboration with

supervisors wrote everything for students. Even the Oba of Ipoti town (Oba Ayeni

Oja, the Olupoti of Ipoti) was involved. The Oba’s children wrote their own exams

in Oba’s Palace. Some of us who were not comfortable with this whole thing were

told that the then Governor, Segun Oni, ordered that Ekiti State must maintain its

lead in WAEC/NECO examination results as usual, by hook or by crook. Ekiti

State’s logo is “Fountain of Knowledge.” But one Mr. Omowaye, a retired

Headmaster from that state, who lived in the same lodge with corps-members/us,

after considering the standard of education in Ekiti, told me that the logo is a

misnomer; that the correct logo for Ekiti State should be “Fountain of Nonsense!”

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It cannot be over-emphasized that because students do not fail any longer in

internal examinations, they are not familiar with failure. And so, to them, it is an

‘abomination’ to fail in external examinations, hence, insofar as another person

writes the exams for one, there is no need for one to read/learn. These problems

have encroached on our tertiary education.

The Universal Basic Education (UBE), as highlighted before, was launched

in Nigeria as far back as September 1999 and is designed to be universal, free, and

compulsory.32

It is to ensure an uninterrupted 9-years formal education geared

towards reducing school drop-out rate and improving relevance, quality and

efficiency.33

Good enough, the UBE programme objectives were well articulated in

the implementation guidelines of year 2000. In spite of all these, many Nigerian

children (of UBE age) are out of school; hence the programme is neither free nor

compulsory. To be sure, many Nigerian kids roam the major streets as hawkers or

beggars (almajiri) while others languish as house-helps or maids engulfed with

child labour. Many others are forced into apprenticeship or are sold into neo-

slavery through child-trafficking. Yet Nigeria has an agency called NAPTIP –

National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other related

offences. One wonders what this agency is actually doing in Nigeria.

4. The Problem of Adolescent Development

Adolescence is the time when an individual has fully developed sexual

maturity and is getting ready to accept the role and responsibility of adulthood.34

In

other words, adolescence is the developmental period of transition from childhood

to early adulthood, entered at approximately between 10 to 12 years of age and

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ending at 18 to 22 years of age.35

It begins with rapid physical changes: dramatic

gains in weight, changes in body contours, and development of sexual

characteristics such as enlargement of the breast, development of pubic and facial

hair and deepening of voice. Adolescence is a period of change in behaviour and

attitude towards self, parents, peers and others as a result of changes in duties,

responsibilities, privileges and relationships with others.36

Among the

developmental tasks facing the young adolescent are acceptance of his physique,

acceptance of the adult-approved sex roles (especially for girls), learning new

relationships with the opposite sex, learning emotional and economic independence

and control, and development or achieving socially responsible behaviour.37

Pursuit

of identity is a prominent feature of adolescence. More and more time is spent

outside the family. Thought becomes more abstract, idealistic and logical

depending on how well the child develops. It is worthy of note that today

developmentalists are not saying that change ends with adolescence (as some

people think); they describe development as a life-long process.38

Therefore, adolescence is a period of storm and stress; it is a critical period

in child development. Society expects the adolescent to adjust with hetero-sexual

peer group, prepare for vocation and initiate a basic philosophy of life. So, as the

child grows into adolescence, his personality develops too and he/she strives to

cope with the challenges of adjustment and finally emerges as a fully fledged adult

with his/her own ego-identity, goal, etc.39

Factors that contribute to this adjustment

include physical appearance, family influence, peer group pressure, level of

intelligence, kind of aspiration and societal circumstances.40

From the explanation

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so far, there are three ways of defining adolescent development, namely:

physiological, emotional and cognitive.

i. Physiological development: The physiological changes during adolescence are

complex; the production of oestrogen (female sex hormone) and androgen (male

sex hormone) increase. Thus, adolescence is a period of greatly increased and

intense sexual desire. The implication of this is seriously felt today among

secondary school students. However, it should be noted that Plato advocates a kind

of curriculum that guarantees effective control of sexual urges in youths.

ii. Emotional development: Emotional development in adolescence is usually full

of crises; some behaviourists call it a period of ‘psychiatric illnesses’ and ruination

of relationship with parents/adults. Adolescents often develop strong sub-cultural

bonds with their peers at school. Sub-cultural bonds lead to friction with school

authority, parents and society. At times adolescents use this sub-cultural bonding to

make adults feel excluded, intentionally.

iii. Cognitive development: This is marked by a child’s attainment of the capacity

for formal operations (11 years onward). Formal operations is characterized by

reflective intelligence. He/she begins to draw hypothesis from his/her

observations.41

The characteristic problems of adolescence can be summarized under the

following:

1. role identity and individual identity come into conflict;

2. acceptance by the opposite sex becomes an important factor/problem;

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3. predictions about status and worries about life begin to dominate the thoughts of

the sixteen to eighteen year-old;

4. major idealistic dissatisfactions may emerge often focusing on the ‘injuries’ of

the adult world;

5. adults are watched very carefully, partly as role models, partly as emotional

supporters and comforters, and partly to be criticized because they feel that the

adults fail to do things ‘properly;’ hence

6. relationships with adults become problematic, characterized by

misunderstandings and revolt against adult domination.42

Other problems of adolescence are juvenile delinquency, use of drug,

depression, tendency to suicide and alienation.

Juvenile Delinquency

The label, ‘juvenile delinquency’, is applied to an adolescent who breaks the

law or engages in behaviour that is considered illegal.43

Erik Erikson says that

delinquency is an attempt to establish an identity, although it is a negative one.44

Delinquency among boys may manifest as burglary, malicious mischief, larceny,

violence, uncouth attitude, indolence; and in girls it may manifest in running away

from home (they call it catching fun), engaging in illicit sexual behavior, nudity,

insolence and indolence. Our secondary school environment is full of deliquency

these days and Plato would advocate the use of elenchus and punishment on

delinquents.

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The Use of Drug

The use of drugs by adolescents is on the increase and causes great worries

in our secondary schools, campuses and even among school drop outs. They take

marijuana, tranquilizing pills and other highly potent mind-altering drugs. Reasons

why adolescents take to drug are:

1. the adult society is increasingly becoming a “drug culture”;

2. it may be a rebellion against constraints by adult society;

3. it shows adolescent curiosity manifested by exploration of new experience of

many kinds;

4. it may mean rejection of societal expectations and attempt to seek a creative,

subjective, personal values and new fanciful individual experiences;

5. it may be used by the hard hit, culturally depraved to escape into oblivion from

an intolerable or intractable conditions.45

Regrettably, many secondary school students nowadays eat cannabis and other hard

drugs. They do not know what they do in platonic idea; they need critical reflective

thought.

Depression

Depression is a medical condition in which a person feels very sad and

anxious and often has physical symptoms such as insomnia (the condition of being

unable to sleep).46

Depression is more likely to occur in adolescence than in

childhood and more likely to occur in adulthood than adolescence.47

Causes of

depression in adolescents are: certain family factors like having a depressed parent,

having parents with high marital conflict, and parents with financial problems.

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Other causes of depression in adolescence are poor peer relationships, problems in

adolescent romantic relationships, hormonal changes associated with puberty.48

Depression may be managed through the use of anti-depressants, cognitive

behavior therapy and support through friendship.49

Today, many secondary school students have broken homes and hail from

poor background. As a result, many of them suffer from depression. This has

caused many students to drop out of school or stay in school without any success.

Suicide

Suicidal behaviour is rare in childhood but escalates in adolescence and

increases further in emerging adulthood.50

Early childhood experiences like family

instability and unhappiness, lack of affection and emotional support, high control

and pressure for achievement by parents during childhood, etc., are involved in

suicide attempts.51

Poor adolescents’ peer relations can cause suicide attempts.

Cultural contexts and genetic factors are also associated with suicide. Today, we

often hear of suicide cases of Nigerian adolescents.

Alienation

The absence of ‘ego identity’ leads to ‘ego diffusion’ causing what is called

alienation. Ego identity means the ability of an individual to see himself separate

from other people despite one’s common motives and interests as others; and the

ability of one to develop a durable self-consistency.52

The failure to achieve ego

identity or integrated identity makes one get disorganized and feel foreign to

society and the world; hence alienated youths/students. Alienation makes students

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powerless in his/her lives and not see societal values as worthy of adaptation. In

several cases, such people may turn mentally ill.53

Alienated adolescents include: school dropouts who cannot find any reason

to be in school; the culturally deprived who may be so poor that they lose interest

in school/society and may rebel violently against school/society; the culturally

alienated who may not actually be poor but may see the middle class style of living

as detestable and therefore rebel against it. Such children are always deviant and

are resolved to fight the system. It is worthy of note that alienation may be as a

result of deep-seated emotional problems fixating from early parent-child

interaction that may have been unsatisfactory.54

Thus, an alienated student may

suffer mental and emotional breakdown and social maladjustment; hence he/she

may resort to drug (including alcohol) and complete delinquency.

All these problems of adolescence are unfortunately aggravated by many

contemporary factors, namely: non-classification of societal values by adults;

inability of parents to serve as role models, and ignorance on the part of the

contemporary parents of adequate parenting skills; inability of

parents/guardians/family to support the members of the family financially;

overwhelmed parents who have given up their responsibilities out of confusion;

and lax on the part of the government; non-maintenance and non-supervision of

schools by education stakeholders; double standards of adults who preach to youths

but practise a different thing; hence ‘loquacio contramentem’; bombardment of the

adolescents’ sense with ugly media messages which highlight drugs, violence, sex-

madness, ostentation and greed; and portrayal of squandering mentality and

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consumerism, hedonism, carelessness, and vandalism as the popular way of life.55

Many Nigerian secondary school students seem alienated today. Plato is the answer

to all these problems: it is question-asking time: and it is self-examination time, so

as to be able to make positive change. One thinks that if stakeholders in secondary

education, parents and students hearken to Plato’s idea and adopt his invitation to

self-examination and his call for question-asking, their thoughts will be illuminated

to be able to reason and act better.

5. Family and Teachers

A. Family: Family refers to group of living things (animals, plants, etc) or of

language with common source.56

Human family is a group of people with common

ties like blood, home, name, economic cooperation and procreation.57

Although children grow up in diverse families, in every family, parents play

important roles in supporting and stimulating children’s academic achievements,

attitudes towards school and general positive behavioural development.58

Thus, the

family members share gifts, gains, losses, good, bad, shame, glory together as one.

The family in Nigerian/African context includes both the nuclear and the extended

families. In history, good and strong families have helped to make strong societies

through good child upbringing; hence the family is the most important agent of

socialization. The child’s first school is the family and the child’s first teachers are

the parents. Parents’ roles on children’s schooling, development, and achievement

are influenced by factors like parenting styles, the changing family in a changing

(globalized) society, and school-family linkages.59

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Parenting Style

Many parents today have abandoned their responsibilities to their children.

They shift their responsibilities to the so-called teachers alone. Some parents even

victimize some good teachers who try to right their children’s wrongs/excesses.

Many parents, in Nigeria today, give indulgence to their wards and have lost the

philosophy of punishment and teaching by example in child training. The truth is

that many parents these days, in Nigeria, give their children too much to eat and

drink, too much to play with, and too much comfort; hence many children are not

motivated to think correctly or be careful. Through wrong ideas and wrong choices,

by parents, many children are denied access, participation and completion of

education, thus increasing the syndrome of out-of-school and deficiency of the

head, the hand and the heart in Nigeria.

Parenting styles come in four main forms, namely: authoritarian,

authoritative, neglectful and indulgent.

i. Authoritarian parenting is restrictive and punitive. Authoritarian parents exhort

children to follow their directions and respect them. They place firm limits and

controls on their wards and allow little verbal exchange. However, the implication

of authoritarian parenting is that children under it often behave in socially

incompetent ways; they tend to be anxious about social comparisons and approval

or condemnation; they may be inactive and have poor communication skills.

ii. Authoritative parenting encourages children to be independent but still places

limits and control on their actions. Here, parents are supportive and nurturing and

extensive verbal give-and-take is tolerated with their children. Children under

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authoritative parenting often behave in socially competent ways; they tend to be

self-reliant and they delay gratification in order not to make mistakes; they get on

with their peers and show good high self-esteem.

iii. Neglectful parenting is a parenting style in which parents are uninvolved in

their children’s lives. Children of neglectful parents are confused and tend to

behave in socially incompetent ways as a result of poor self-control and difficulty

in handling independence. Such children lack achievement motivation and are

prone to delinquency.

iv. Indulgent parents are highly involved with their wards but place few or no limits

or restrictions on their behaviors. Many of such parents too often allow their

children to do whatever they want and get their own way, because they mistakenly

believe that the combination of nurturing support and lack of restriction will

produce a creative, confident child. Unfortunately, the result is that kids who are

given indulgence, develop perpetual lack of self-control; hence they get fixated in

very bad character or behaviour.60

What we have today in Nigeria are mostly, neglectful, and/or indulgent

parenting, causing endemic bad habits of children with impunity. It is high time the

examination and re-examination mandate of Plato’s Socrates started in Nigeria

otherwise the essence of procreation may turn futile at the peril of all Nigerians.

Changing Family in a Changing Society

Today, in Nigeria, many children are being raised in divorced families, step-

parent families, families in which both parents work outside home and stay almost

the whole day at work, and single-parent homes. Many men have abandoned their

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duty in their families leaving their children to be taken care of by their wives and

teachers only. Today women are talking of gender equality and rights of women.

Thus, very many women in Nigeria abandon the natural, God-given gender roles in

their families under the guise of championing the course of gender equality,

women’s rights, affirmative action and somewhat drawn-war against the so-called

men’s domination over women, and sexism. One wonders what goal such women

really want to achieve or what their problems really are. Whereas one can imagine

a situation where both men and women are given due respect as humans, one does

not think that pursuing standardization (i.e., to make man and woman have the

same features or qualities, total equality) is sensible because men and women have

complementary roles in society. However, one may argue that gender roles are

social constructs, and that there is nothing natural and God-given about gender.

But, another may still argue that gender roles are not entirely social constructs.

Somewhat, gender roles are rooted in natural/God-given abilities. For instance, the

issue of child-bearing and other gender-based inclinations cannot be termed social

constructs. Further, of course, men are more equipped for more energy-demanding

roles/tasks, while women need indulge in less-energy-demanding duties naturally.

As mentioned earlier, gender roles are complementary. These points are not

perculiar to humans only. Observations of lives of other animals tend to

corroborate these points. Therefore, certain abilities are natural, God-given and

perculiar to some genders than others. So, it is sensible to believe that any aim,

ideology or ratiocination that hinders the procreation and nurturing of children by

women/mothers or fathers/men in a “stable home/family” is hostile to children, life,

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and humans in general. Do not forget that the Socratic Plato informed us that man’s

end in life is “becoming like God” by living according to nature and virtue.61

Nigerians take note.

School-Family Linkage

The relationship among family, environment and school is an important

aspect of sociology of education. Parents play important role in supporting

children’s academic achievement.62

The value parents place on education can

determine whether children do well in school or not. Parents not only influence

children’s in-school achievement but also make decisions about children’s out-of-

school activities.63

Teachers and education administrators need to work with the

family and the community in positive ways to increase students’ success. Families

need to know if their schools are providing high quality education to their wards or

not, how to help their wards do their best, and how to communicate and support

teachers and school. As such, there is the need for comprehensive programmes and

philosophy of school, family and community partnerships.64

The school-family

partnership is rooted in the recognition of their shared interests and responsibilities

for children. Reasons for family-school cooperation in education is to improve

school programme and school climate, provide family services and support,

increase parents’ skills in child up-bringing and help teachers with their duty.

Hence, when parents, teachers, and students see one another as partners in

education, a caring community forms around the students and better results are

made.

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The keys to successful school-family partnership include: school assisting

parents in parenting; good communication between school and family about school

programmes; involving parents in students’ learning at home; involvement of

families in school decisions; forming associations like the Parent-Teacher

Association (PTA); and school collaborating with the community culminating in

yearly guidance from school/teachers to parents on students’ performances so far

and how to improve on them.65

This is possible if Nigerians develop love (eros) of

knowledge and virtue as advocated by Plato.

B. Teachers: Teachers are the distinct occupational group of people especially

equipped by training to execute the task of educating students/learners in school or

institutions socially assigned the responsibility for education.66

Teaching is the

process of interaction between a teacher and students; a way of working with

subject-matter of instruction, and a system of action intended to produce

knowledge/learning.67

It is a process of integration of cognitive, affective and

technical components into a sequence of activities aimed at the attainment of a

selected learning goals or outcomes.68

Teaching is consistently directed to bringing

about learning, imparting of knowledge and transmission of what is

worthwhile/valuable to students/learners. And teachers make teaching happen.

Teaching involves three skills as follows:

a. communication skills – the ability to give clear, simple and logical lessons;

b. interpersonal skills – the ability to create warm, close relationship with students

that will motivate them independently; hence the possession of the right attitude to

learners; and

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c. intellectual skills – the ability to acquire the required knowledge about the

subject matter.69

A good teacher must create a good impression of himself. He must also

develop interest in his students inside and outside the classroom. He must be a

good role-model for his students and must be willing to deliver services without

hope of praises or unnecessary recognition.70

However, while the importance of education is more widely recognized

today than ever before, those who play central role in providing it, the 50 million

teachers of the world are often overlooked. World Teachers’ Day (October 5th) is

dedicated to correcting this situation and recognizing these devoted men and

women on whom the education of our children depends. Corroborating this idea,

the incumbent President of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Michael

Alogba Olukoya said that the theme of 2012 Teachers’ Day, by reference and all

cannon of interpretation, suggested a protest, an appeal, and a clarion call on all

individuals, institutions, industries, and governments of nations and their states to

rise up and uplift the status of teachers and by extension the standard of

education.71

Teachers in Nigeria are poorly paid. They are not motivated by the

government.

Notwithstanding, it irritates one to see that many teachers perform below

standard, even the so-called ‘qualified teachers.’ There is acute shortage of

competent secondary school teachers. In many secondary schools, in Nigeria today,

the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members form the majority of their

teaching staff. Although, these corps-members are university graduates, many of

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them lack the rudiments of teaching, because they were not trained to teach.

Besides, many corps-members are just there in schools to abuse sexually as many

female students as possible before the one-year programme elapses. Even many

trained teachers commit what is called ‘quid pro quo’ sexual harassment on female

students. ‘Quid pro quo’ sexual harassment occurs when a school employee/teacher

threatens to base an educational decision (such as grade) on a student’s submission

to unwelcome sexual conduct.72

Some teachers even indulge in what is called

‘hostile environment’ sexual harassment; hence the student is subjected to

unwelcome sexual conduct that is so severe and persistent that the student gets

badly affected in her entire business of learning.73

It is important to note that sexual

harassment can be of many forms, ranging from sexist remarks and covert physical

contact (pushing, or brushing against bodies) to blatant overt propositions and

sexual assaults.74

Furthermore, many Nigerian secondary school teachers nowadays do not

teach to impact knowledge but only for mercenary reasons; they are only interested

in money – their salaries and incentives. Many of them lack the sense of duty,

cherish ill-gotten money and attend school only to sign registers. In many rural

areas, many teachers attend school only at the visit of higher authority. Worse still,

such visits, most often, are make-believe; the inspectors are not serious. Majority of

teachers go to school late everyday and teach without any lesson plan or lesson

note. As Acting Principal, I fell apart with many teachers teaching in my school

because of their inability and/or unwillingness to write and use lesson notes in

teaching. Almost all of them devote more of their time to personal businesses (like

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farm work, ‘Okada’ or ‘Keke’ business; ‘Okada is the use of motocycle for

commercial services as it is done in Nigeria, and ‘Keke’ is the tricycle used for

conveying people and goods to various destinations, for commercial purposes in

Nigeria, etc). Many teachers lack the know-how and the do-how, and are in dearth

of child educational psychology.

It is very unfortunate that many secondary school students nowadays tend to

hate their teachers; they despise and insult them. Even when some teachers try to

be duty-conscious, many students neglect all their efforts, perhaps because their

teachers are poor. Some female students are so naughty that they compare their

teachers with their boyfriends in terms of age and wealth. Many male students are

not just interested in the teachers’ ‘boring long stories’ in the class: money is the

in-thing for boys. These things demoralize many secondary school teachers and

their effects are that due to poverty of teachers and disrespect accorded to them by

students and society, many youths do not want to pick up teaching as a profession,

and many teachers leave teaching for greener pastures.

Notwithstanding, secondary school teachers need not relent in carrying out

their duty diligently. They should focus on the ethics of the teaching profession in

Nigeria and not forget Plato’s connection of virtue and happiness – that only virtue

gives happiness. Thus, for Plato as highlighted before, happiness is embedded only

in a virtue. Even if any virtue involves some pains, the pains cannot be greater than

the happiness which it gives because what matters to a virtuous person is that right

things are done, as that will yield happiness later either for oneself or other.

Teachers should continue the good work of teaching with all their strength, in order

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to give their best because the end-result is happiness and self-fulfillment. When

teachers give their best, they become functional and philosophic.

The Code of Ethics of the Teaching Profession in Nigeria

The code starts with this preamble:

We members of the Nigerian Union of Teachers believe that the

primary purpose of education is to develop enlightened citizens that

will recognize and respect the worth and dignity of man; that the

primary purpose of education is to develop good, able citizens; that

the attainment and the building of a good and just society, and the

development and maintenance of national ideals depend upon

making acceptable educational opportunity for all; that the quality of

education reflects the ideals, motives, preparation, and conduct of the

members of the teaching profession; that whoever chooses teaching

as a profession assumes the obligation to conduct himself in

accordance with the ideals of the profession and these rules shall

apply to all persons engaged in the profession at the Primary,

Secondary and University levels of education.75

What is more is that the code of ethics of the teaching profession in Nigeria has

five principles: commitment to students, commitment to the parents, commitment

to the community, commitment to the employer, and commitment to the

profession. We shall look at these principles one by one.

First Principle – Commitment to the Student

The primary obligation of the teaching profession in Nigeria is to guide

children, youths and adults in the pursuit of knowledge and skills to develop

healthy attitude that will enable them to live in harmony with other Nigerians, and

help them become happy, useful, and responsible citizens. This is because the

ultimate strength of the nation lies in the social responsibility, economic

competence and moral strength of the individual citizen. Thus, in fulfilling this

obligation to the student, every teacher shall:

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a. deal justly and impartially with pupils and students regardless of their physical,

mental, emotional, economic, social, ethnic or religious characteristics;

b. recognize and respect the differences among pupils and students, and seek to

meet their individual educational needs;

c. help students to develop understanding and appreciation not only of the

privileges and benefits which they can enjoy but also their corresponding

responsibility to the nation which makes these privileges and benefits possible;

d. not enter into any indecent relationship with the student and pupils in his/her

school;

e. withhold confidential information about a student on his/her home except if its

release is to authorized agencies or is required by law; and

f. make discrete use of all available information about students but avoid all

damaging or defamatory comments upon a student or his/her home.76

Second Principle – Commitment to the Parents

“We members of the teaching profession in Nigeria share with parents the

task of shaping each student’s behaviour towards socially acceptable ends. We

share with other citizens the responsibility for the development of sound public

policy. We are particularly accountable for participating in the development of

sound educational programme and policy. And we believe that the effectiveness of

teaching is dependent upon the healthy relationship with the home and the

community. Thus, in fulfilling this obligation to parents, all teachers shall:

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a. share the responsibility of improving the educational opportunity for all by

respecting the basic desires of parents in Nigeria for the education of the their

children;

b. seek to establish friendly and cooperative responsibility with the home of the

student and help to increase the student’s confidence in his/her home and

endeavour to avoid disparaging remarks which could undermine their confidence;

c. provide parents with information that will serve the interest of their children and

make careful and wise use of information received from parents;

d. keep parents informed about the progress of their children as interpreted in terms

of the purpose of the school.”77

Third Principle – Commitment to the Community

Teaching profession in Nigeria occupies a position of public trust involving

not only the individual teacher’s personal conduct but also the interaction of the

school and the community. Education is most effective when these relationships of

teacher, school, and the community operate in a friendly, cooperative and

constructive manner. Hence, in fulfilling this obligation to the community, every

teacher in Nigeria shall:

a. adhere to responsible pattern of behaviour acceptable by the community for

professional persons;

b. assume full political and citizenship responsibilities but avoid exploiting the

institutional privileges of the teaching profession to promote undue political

activities;

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c. discuss controversial issues with objectivity that will help keep his/her students

from partisan opinion;

d. recognize that the school belongs to the community, encourage lay participation

in shaping the purposes of the school and strive to keep the public informed of the

educational programme which is being provided;

e. respect the community in which he/she is employed and to be loyal to the school

system, community, state and the Nigerian nation; and

f. work to raise educational standards and strengthen the community’s moral,

spiritual and intellectual life.78

Fourth Principle – Commitment to the Employer

The members of the teaching profession in Nigeria are inescapably involved

in employer-employee relationship, which should be so regulated that there shall be

mutual respect, understanding and good faith. In fulfilling this fourth principle, the

teacher in Nigeria shall:

a. conduct his professional duties through the proper channels and accept no

remuneration for teaching except in accordance with approved policy;

b. refrain from discussing confidential and official information with unauthorized

persons;

c. apply for a position only on the basis of professional and legal qualification;

d. adhere to the conditions of the contract or to the terms of appointment until it has

been terminated formally by mutual consent or legally.79

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Fifth Principle – Commitment to the Profession

“The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) goes on to say that the teaching

profession is a unique occupation and we believe that the quality of the services of

the teaching profession in Nigeria directly influences the future of the nation and its

citizens. We the members of the teaching profession in Nigeria must strive to give

our best to the nation by making the teaching profession attractive so as to

encourage persons worthy of the trust to take up teaching as a career.”80

Now, having looked at these principles, one discovers that if these principles

are observed, in Nigeria, the story will change for better. One expects that three

things be done:

a. the Nigerian Union of Teachers should create some forum like symposia or

workshops in which their members are constantly reminded of these principles;

b. the Nigerian Union of Teachers should also set up a monitoring committee to

ensure that all teachers in Nigeria comply to the dictates of those principles; and

c. the Nigerian Government, parents and indeed all Nigerians should develop an

all-hands-must-be on deck attitude towards helping Nigerian teachers to actualize

their objectives and principles of the code of ethics of the teaching profession in

Nigeria.

6. Government and the Mass Media

Government: The Nigerian Federal Government has seemingly lost control of

secondary education due to “poverty of philosophy”, poor commitment to

implementation of policies and lack of patrotism. From the figures of the budgetary

allocations to education discussed earlier, it was clear that instead of increasing its

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spending on education, the Nigerian government has been engaged in reducing the

money each successive year. What it looks like is that subsequent governments in

Nigeria operated as anti-education governments through their poor budgetary

practices. These governments which should be at the forefront to encourage the

education managers in the country and support teachers through training-cum-just

wages and to render excellent services to Nigerians, by implementing the National

Policy on Education to the letter have failed through their financial strangulation of

the education sector/system. This has crippled Nigerian economy and development.

It is only the development of the individual through proper education that

guarantees the development of the nation and only such development can bail

Nigeria out from perennial dependency on foreign aid and various needs.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian government does not help ‘education’ to do its work of

development in Nigeria; it rather acts as if education is its foe.

Nigerian government is good at theorizing and creating beautiful educational

policies but the real problem is implementation. To be sure, the same problematic,

educationally non-challant Nigerian government articulated its failure in the area of

education very clearly in its Millennium Development Goals where it stated that:

the country faces various challenges in its efforts to implement the Universal Basic

Education (UBE), and that the biggest of these challenges is inadequate public

spending on education.81

What a self-deceit! The question is: Why is there

government’s inadequate spending? The answer is not far-fetched –‘the individual’

is the problem. Here in Nigeria, personal and individual priorities and values

override the societal common good and priorities. Thus, most Nigerians put

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themselves first at the expense of other Nigerians whom they claim to serve. Many

Nigerian children of school age are so poor that they have no food to eat. How does

such a child pay school fees? We are told that the Universal Basic Education

(UBE) is free and compulsory. How free is it when students pay other moneys

(which are not tagged schools fees) that are even higher than normal school fees?

How compulsory is education in Nigeria when many children of UBE age are out

of school? What plans does the Nigerian government have to reduce child poverty,

child abuse, and increase child right in Nigeria? None! Thus, education is neither

free nor compulsory at any level in Nigeria.

All these are the more reason why we (Nigerians) need to appreciate the

Socratic Plato’s educational ideas and adapt them. For instance, only virtuous

rational passion through self-examination and a resolve to pursue the good at all

cost can give Nigeria that desired change in her educational sector.

The Mass Media

The mass media refer generally to all the ways that large number of people

receive information and entertainment, namely: the television, radio, newspapers,

magazines, the internet, movies/films, music, handset/phones, and billboards, etc.82

The media are agents of socialization; hence they are informative, educative and

entertaining. The mass media (even though it is a modern concept) are traced back

to the ancient time when actors performed dramas on stage disseminating

information and entertaining a large audience at a time.

In the medieval era (around 15th

century AD) Johannes Gutenberg invented

printing press, thereby promoting massive production of books.83

After the Second

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World War (1939-1945), radio, television, and video cassettes were invented

making possible audio-visual information, education, and entertainment

dissemination to the public.84

In this 21st century, we have the Internet, the latest

and the most popular mass medium. The Internet makes information available

through websites; hence the use of the Information Communication Technology

(ICT). Thus seen, from antiquity, man has always been “homo loquaci” meaning

“communicating or speaking animal” and “homo ludus,” meaning “playing

animal” – “loquaci” is a Latin word meaning “speak” and “ludus” is also Latin

meaning “game” having its root in “ludere” meaning “to play.”85

In other words,

man cannot live without communication, transmitting information from one person

to another thereby creating relationships. Therefore, communication bridges the

gap between persons and places; thus the world is now a global village through the

mass media.

As mentioned at the beginning, the mass media have three basic functions

viz: information dissemination, education, and entertainment. But they exert a

dualistic influence on man; they can have positive or negative effects on man.

When mass media help to enrich the human mind with worthwhile

knowledge/information (as Plato advocated), they are positive. When they lead the

mind astray, plunge our passion to moral decadence, they are negative, and that

gives Plato a lot of worries; hence his condemnation of uncensored works of art.86

More often than not the functions of the mass media are thwarted by corrupt

private interests.

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The information given out often fails to present a complete picture of

the events; the education provided is based more on propaganda than

any factual communication; the entertainment often tend to be cheap

and appealing to the baser instincts of man as seen in many films,

music and advertisements in Nigeria. Thus the basic quality of our

social life is being diluted, distorted and demeaned by a host of

structural changes in society stemming from the negative effects of bad

products of the media.87

Today, there is abuse of the mass media in Nigeria. It is very painful that in Nigeria

today, very young children are provided with handsets/cell phones. Tendering such

succulent mind with such trivial material, he/she grows up to engage in secret

discussions, internet fraud and hacking. Nigerian media today seem to have a

deceitful tendency. Too unfortunate is the use of radio, television, movie/films, the

internet and even the print media to pass on immoral messages to the public.88

Nigerian movies today stereotype Nigeria. To be sure, most products of art

displayed by the media usually portray obscenity/prurience, lasciviousness,

violence, vandalism, ostentation, frivolity, wickedness and mischief making,

murder, dissipation, theft, individualism, and injustice, etc., which are already the

basic problems that Nigeria has.

Nigerian traditional education is gone into extinction due to the upsurge of

home movies and internet materials. As permissive as Nigerian society is, nothing

is done about these excesses of the mass media. In Nigeria, today, people consume

all sorts of ugly immoral TV and radio programmes and musics like: “Pant nọ n’

iro,” “Ukwu Nwanyi Owerre,” “Nabanịa,” “Do me,” “Ara dara ada,” “Nyem ife

gị,” “Ukwu Sara Mbara” “Ife Nsori” “Achọrọ m Igbu Ya”, etc. One wonders if the

Nigerian government does not know the correlation between entertainment and

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education. What are the Nigerian Censors Board and the Nigerian Standards

Organization doing? Do they realize that one is what one watches/hears?

Do you know that the contemporary means of information technology are

used to bring something that has little or no connection with reality into existence?

Such fabrications are superimposed on the minds of Nigerian children, the

uncritical mind, the ‘ignorant’ hoi polloi, and others. These things are presented to

Nigerian society as real. It is appalling how people are increasingly credulous and

gullible that they do not care anymore to differentiate reality from fiction. The

artists make huge amount of money from their corruptible products and the

consequences are unfathomable and seriously shaking the moral foundations of the

Nigerian society. More so, the Nigerian movies portray too superstitious attitudes;

hence creating serious problems in various homes. Witchcraft, and the paranormal

are made so real in such a way that it obsesses and terrorizes the unsuspecting and

tender minds. The marriage institution is the worst hit. These film makers produce

fictions where infidelity is the in-thing, marital life is flamboyant, wealth is a

matter of do or die and the lifebuoy of marital relationships hinges on such

‘imaginary’ wealth. In such fictions, love is without reason or substance, domestic

violence is a necessary characteristic of marital life, and individualism is the order

of the day, at home and elsewhere. These artists claim that such ugly films are

meant to convey exceptions but the fact is that they have become the rule rather

than the exceptions.

Indeed, the mimetic accusation of Plato against arts is seemingly a justifiable

one. Plato is worried about all these false indoctrination through arts.89

However,

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considering the plausible, positive roles of the mass media, Plato’s view that all

artists works should be thrown into the Aegean Sea may be given a second thought.

Yet there is an urgent need to make the censoring agencies in Nigeria critically

functional to scrutinize the information the society consumes to save our children’s

tomorrow and build a healthy nation.

It is important to emphasize that an important connection between Plato and

Nigerian secondary education is that Plato’s theory of knowledge forms the

foundation of the whole of Western thought about knowledge and/or education and

Nigeria adopted Western Education through Colonial Education. Therefore,

impliedly, Nigerian secondary education is traceable to Platonism of some sort. To

be sure, a good look at the aims of secondary education, as shown in the 2004

(latest National Policy) National Policy on Education shows that they are yardstick

to Plato’s education ideas. One thinks that the missing elements, which this

research ultimately emphasizes, are: the ability of Nigerian education policy and

the Nigerian Government/society to produce well-developed persons, critically

thinking Nigerians or well-trained products; and effective action (in Nigerians)

backed by love (eros) and the illuminating light of ‘the Good,’ as Plato advocated.

Also, the Nigerian secondary education and Plato’s education idea are rooted

in culture of functionalism and paternalism; thus, the philosophical relationship

between Plato’s education culture and Nigerian education culture. Each can

complement the other in the business of child education. For Plato, education must

be philosophic; it must adopt a critically reflective input to be able to yield a

desirable and maximum output. Therefore, if Plato’s education ideas come to play

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in Nigerian secondary education, students, parents, educators, the Nigerian

government and even the curriculum will be philosophic.

Having looked at Nigerian secondary education, it becomes important to

look at the implications of Plato’s theory of knowledge for secondary education in

Nigeria in the next chapter. So, as to find out if it is tenable to be able to save

situations for Nigerian secondary education.

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ENDNOTES

1.

William W. Brickman. “Secondary Education.” Microsoft ® Encarta®

2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

2.

Federal Government of Nigeria, National Policy on Education 2004

(Abuja: Ministry of Education, 2004), section 4.

3.

Adeniji Adaralegbe ed., A Philosophy for Nigerian Education (Ibadan:

Heinemann Educational Books, 1972), 26-37., sv: “History and Purpose of

Secondary Education” by Adeniji Adaralegbe.

4.

Adeniji Adaralegbe ed., A Philosophy for Nigerian Education (Ibadan:

Heinemann Educational Books, 1972), 37-40., sv: “What is Secondary Education”

by Olatunde Lawrence.

5.

Adeniji Adaralegbe ed., A Philosophy for Nigerian Education (Ibadan:

Heinemann Educational Books, 1972), 37-40., sv: “What is Secondary Education”

by Olatunde Lawrence.

6.

The International Association of Universities and the Association of

African Universities, Guide to Higher Education in Africa, 4th edition (New York:

Palgrove McMillan, 2007), 391-428.

7.

Samuel Amaele, Understanding the Philosophy of Education (Ibadan:

Bounty Press Ltd., 2007), 145-146.

8.

Anya Iwe, Education at the Cross Road Critical Issues (Owerri: Vivian &

Vivian Publishers Ltd., 1993), 247-252.

9.

Norrell, Robert J. “Martin Luther King Jr.” Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009

[DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

10.

Janet Gonzalez-Mena, Foundations of Early Childhood Education:

Teaching Children in a Diverse Society (Boston: McGrawHill, 2008), 18.

11.

Nathaniel C. Ugwu, “Building the Youth Extra-Physio.” The Lumen News

Letter, 2 (2012/2013 edition), 6.

12.

Robin Barrow and Ronald Woods, An Introduction to Philosophy of

Education, 4th edition (Oxon: Routledge, 2006), 26.

13.

Robin Barrow and Ronald Woods, An Introduction to Philosophy of

Education, 4th edition, 26.

175

14.

Kingsley C. Igbonekwu, “A Lamentable Status Quo.” The Lumen, 11 (No

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1999. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/NIGERIAEXTN/Resources/ed_Sec_analy

sis.pdf. Retrieved 15 February, 2014.

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25. all-Africa.com: Nigeria: 2013 budget – Rescuing Education, 1-2.

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University of Nigeria, Nsukka (15 April, 2008), 13.

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Priority.” http://www.ngex.com/news/public/articles.php?ArticleID=3355.

Retrieved 10 December, 2013; “2013 Budget Analysis” http://www.myfinancialint

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reliance.” Journal of Sociology of Education. Volume v. (Number 1, October

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2010), 18.

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Publishing Company Limited, 2003), 142.

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York: Hodder & Stought Educational, 2006), 89-95.

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Alison Scott Baumann et al, Becoming a Secondary School Teacher, 89-

95. 43.

John W. Santrock, Children, 11th edition (New York: McGraw-Hill,

2010), 552-553.

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2010), 554.

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Journal of Adolescent Health, volume 37. (2006), 305-317.

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2010), 556-557.

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McGraw-Hill, 2011), 78.

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(Boston: Gale Cengage, 2009), 1-34. sv: “Parental Involvement in Education” by

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by Benjamin Jowett (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1993.

181

CHAPTER FIVE

IMPLICATIONS OF PLATO’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE FOR

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

1. Socratic Questioning: Critical Thinking; Wondering aloud about Meaning

and Truth

Socratic questioning is a discussion in which the thinking involved is

structured to take a student’s or a discussant’s thought from unclear to the clear, the

unreasoned to the reasoned, the unexamined to the examined, the inconsistent to

the consistent, and from the inarticulated to the articulated.1 Socratic questioning

does the following:

a. raises basic issues and probes beneath the surface of things;

b. pursues problematic areas of thought and helps students/discussants/interlocutors/

learners to discover the structure of their own thought;

c. helps student/learners/interlocutors to develop sensitivity to clarity, accuracy,

and relevance by making them arrive at sound judgment by their own reasoning;

and

d. helps students/learners to note claims, evidence, conclusions, questions-at-issue,

assumptions, implications, consequences, concepts, interpretations and points of

view thereby promoting, to the fullest, proper understanding and confrontation of

elements of thought.2

More so, to participate in Socratic questioning, one has to do the following:

learn to listen carefully to what other people say; look for reasons and

evidences/grounds for premises and reflect upon assumptions; seek examples,

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analogies, objections and both necessary and unnecessary details; seek to discover

what is really true and distinguish it from what is merely believed. Socratic

questioning can come from a student or the teacher. There are three kinds of

Socratic discussion which teachers can apply in teaching, viz: the spontaneous or

unplanned; the exploratory; and the focused.

a. The Spontaneous or Unplanned Socratic Discussion

Every teacher should be imbued with the ‘Socratic spirit,’ through curiosity

and wonder. If a teacher develops such mind-set, there will be many occasions in

which he/she will spontaneously ask students questions about what is meant in a

lesson and explore with them whether a thing is true or not.3 For example, if in a

lesson on Geography, one says that the Antarctica (the 5th

largest continent of the

world) is growing new species of plants, animals and new range of temperature,

due to green-house effect, which depletes the Ozone (o3), the class/discussants and

the instructor may spontaneously wonder about the meaning of that. Such

spontaneous discussions provide the forum for listening critically and exploring the

beliefs expressed or hypothesis put forward. It gives students/learners the ability of

self-correction rather than relying on the teacher’s correction only.

b. Exploring Socratic Discussion

This kind of Socratic discussion can be used by a teacher to assess what is

called student-thinking. Student-thinking means what a student knows or thinks on

a subject.4 A teacher can use exploratory discussion as entry-behaviour at the

beginning of a course or unit. However, it requires a pre-planning or pre-thinking

on the part of the teacher by getting ready some questions to be raised at the

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appropriate time. One can also prepare by anticipating students’ or learners’

likeliest responses and preparing of some follow-up questions.

c. Focused Socratic Discussion

Any time a teacher approaches instruction with specific area or issues to

cover, that is the time for focused Socratic questioning.5 Students can be engaged

in an extended and focused discussion to really probe an issue or concept in-depth,

have clarity, sort, analyze, distinguish the known from the unknown, and

synthesize relevant factors and knowledge; hence offering students the chance to

pursue perspectives about their most basic assumptions by considering their

furthest implications and consequences.

All these three types of Socratic discussion require development in art of

questioning and require the teacher to develop familiarity with a wide variety of

intellectual moves and sensitivity to cues that lead to questions. In sum, Socratic

questioning presupposes that:

i. all thinking has assumptions and make claims or create meanings;

ii. all thinking has implications and consequences, focuses on some things and

throws others to the background;

iii. all thinking uses some concepts or ideas and not others (which need thorough

clarification);

iv. all thinking is relatively clear or unclear, relatively critical or uncritical,

relatively elaborated or undeveloped, relatively deep or superficial;

v. all thinking is defined by purposes, issues, or problems.6

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Therefore, it is obvious that the fundamental danger for human thought is

narrowness. We have a natural propensity to use our native intelligence and our

cognitive skills to protect and maintain some negative systems of belief instead of

improving on our attitudes to life. We need to be thoroughly fair-minded, more

broadened in our approach to knowledge/issues with the help of Socratic

questioning. Surely, it can help students and teachers (and anyone) a great deal,

especially now that our secondary schools need over-hauling. Socratic questioning

will also remind our education managers that they have NOT achieved the aim of

secondary education in Nigeria.

2. Adequate Financing and Proper Government Supervision

Financing means the money used to run a business, or an activity or a

project.7 The vision 2010 Committee Report reveals that 50% of Nigerians live

below the poverty line.8 Over 10 million Nigerian children are out of school and 3

out of every 4 children in Northern Nigeria are out of school due to poverty.9

Although, Nigeria has an estimated population of 140 million people and is

endowed with abundant natural resources, namely minerals, arable land, talented

and creative citizens, poverty is everywhere in Nigeria.10

Nigeria is poor because of

poor leadership – a few politicians divert the nation’s wealth into their private

purse. According to Chinua Achebe, “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and

squarely a failure of leadership.”11

However, Achebe still believes that Nigeria can

change through able, willing and visionary leadership.12

Due to corruption among most Nigerian leaders and politicians, the

educational sector as a whole is not funded adequately, thereby lowering the

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standard of education in Nigeria. Thus, many schools, especially secondary

schools, do not have the needed materials and human resources for the execution of

the objectives of teaching and learning. Even the few teachers that are available are

not adequately remunerated for their invaluable services. The consequence is that

many brilliant teachers have been forced to seek for greener pastures in other fields

and many students have dropped out of school to learn one business or the other.

Thus seen, the most crucial thing for the government of President Goodluck

Jonathan to do is to finance education (especially secondary education) in this

country. Unfortunately, on the 2nd of July, 2013, the Academic Staff of University

(ASUU) embarked on a nation-wide strike, partly, over the under-funding of

education in Nigeria. The Federal Government of 2014 is seemingly insensitive to

plight of parents, teachers and students in this country as it concerns education. No

one knows when the incessant series of strikes will end. In short, as at 10 October,

2013, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and Nigerian Labour Congress

(NLC) threatened to join the strike in solidarity with ASUU, as the poor funding of

education is felt in all levels of education in Nigeria; however, the secondary

schools are worst hit.

Furthermore, the Academic Staff Unions of Polytechnics and Colleges of

Education in Nigeria embarked on strike action, which as at 2nd

May, 2014, already

lasted over ten months. Worse still, no one knows when they will go back to the

classroom because the Nigerian Government does not seem to take the strike

seriously. On Wednessday, 1st May, 2014 the members of the unions staged a

peaceful protest in Abuja demanding that the Federal Government meet their

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requests. The Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka Nwogu in his address to the unions

told them that the Federal Government was not relenting; in his own words, he

said: “We are almost there.” However, the fact is that Nigerian politicians are busy

preparing for 2015 general election – they are only interested in party rallies,

campaigns and plans for gerrymandering or the like. Salaries of teachers should be

increased to a befitting and just amount in Nigeria. The Federal Government of

Nigeria should provide most of the funds required to manage education because it

collects and manages the lion’s share of the centrally generated revenue in this

country. Indeed, the Federal Government exclusively controls the main sources of

revenue for Nigeria such as petroleum and other solid minerals, customs and excise

duties, among others. Nigeria is so rich that there is no excuse why education

should not be well funded in this country.

In addition, the problem does not get solved only by putting more money

into education; there is the need for the Federal Government and the Ministry of

Education to monitor and supervise Nigerian secondary schools regularly and

strictly. This is to ensure that money and man-power meant for secondary

education are properly utilized and also to ensure that students pursue academics

diligently. Nigeria can borrow a leaf from some African countries like Togo, and

Benin Republic where primary, secondary, and university education have different

ministries and different ministers for better management. The Nigerian government

should give free education at all levels in Nigeria, and at least primary and

secondary education should be made compulsory for every Nigerian child. Note

that, for Plato, the fairest thing that can be given to a child is education. The

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implication of Plato’s theory for this sub-topic is that political connection has

remained an extraneous factor threatening the quality of school systems in Nigeria.

Plato advocated that one be allowed to serve the state based on one’s class, interest,

ability or level of educationa development. So that only those who have the ability

to rule should. When that is done, everything will be in the right place. Here, in

Nigeria, wrong people are imposed on Nigerians as “leaders” through rigging of

elections, nepotism, favouritism and tribalism. More so, appointments of education

managers, more often that not, have become records for party loyalists or faithfuls

who may not have the interest of Nigeria at heart. These square pegs in round holes

can only give what they have: ignorance, indolence and corruption; hence the cause

of poor funding and poor government’s supervision of schools. A situation in

which ‘people’ are just called from their homes (without ascertaining their

qualities) and appointed/elected either as leaders of the state or managers of

education is a mortgage of the future of this country. Therefore, Plato’s theory is an

eye-opener for Nigerians to adopt the principle of self-development, first so, as to

be able to fit into a class accordingly. Also, Plato’s theory will help Nigerians

develop patriotism and good behaviour because in Plato’s education philosophy, he

was doing ethics of education. His focus was on how to discover the best way to

act and how to achieve love in society. Thus, with Plato’s idea, Nigeria will be in a

better position to achieve good attitude, love, ‘good success’ and happiness for all

Nigerians.

In education management, the consideration is to narrow the time between

the occurrence of error and its detection, and correction. To be precise, in Nigeria,

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secondary education has long been neglected. Therefore, the gap between the

(deviation) ‘threshold’ and the response of ‘the controller’ has been too wide.

Nigeria needs some preplanned remedial strategies and the passion to respond and

control creatively, precisely, and quickly the current deviations from the set point

of her secondary education system. Plato would call the ‘controller’ the intellect.

He would expect a learner/person to use the intellect by critical reflective inquiry

into everything including oneself.

3. Responsible Parenthood, Sound Knowledge of Culture

According to Pope John Paul II, “Since the creator of all things has

established the conjugal partnership as the beginning and basis of human society,

the family is the ‘first and most vital cell of society.”13

The family begets society

and the first teachers of a child are his/her parents and other members of the family.

Hence, the cumulative behavioural patterns in any human society are traceable to

individual families. What this means is that good child development mainly

comes/starts from good families and good parentage. If parents, definitely, control

children/students well at home they will behave well outside home. Therefore,

parents must be responsible, if their children’s growth, development and education

must be great. To be responsible means having the job or duty of doing something

or taking care of somebody or something, so that one may be blamed if something

goes wrong.14

The adjective, ‘responsible’ qualifies people or their actions that are

trust worthy, reliable, and desirable. Therefore, responsible parenthood can be

defined as the qualification of parents who are actually reliably committed to their

duty and roles in the family/at home. I have discussed the four main parenting

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styles in chapter five, and I think the best among them is authoritative parenting;

hence parents should be more authoritative in child upbringing. However, parents

must be role models to their wards, they must not be: “do-as-I-say, not as-I-do”

types of parents. Indeed, responsible parenting is very vital and indispensable to

effective education of the child and must be emphasized greatly. Responsible

parents take into consideration child’s right and interest.15

Very importantly,

responsible parenting was in Plato’s theory of knowledge as Plato always enjoined

parents to be diligent in child-upbringing. Responsible parenthood is a key to

success in child education.

Furthermore, man is a cultural animal. ‘To be’ is to belong to a culture;

hence culture is a primary good. Plato already drew attention to ‘the good’ as the

ultimate form, which illuminates every other forms or things. Primary goods are

things which a rational man should pursue.16

Again, ‘good’ represents the

satisfaction of rational desire. Culture is defined as the complex whole which

includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom and other capabilities and

habits (including education) acquired by man as a member of society.17

Culture

therefore represents the distinctive way of life of a group of people and their

complete design for living.18

There are three main elements of culture worth

mentioning here. They are:

a. rules and norms which govern human behaviour as well as regulate and control

interaction in society;

b. the ideas and philosophies developed by society;

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c. the concrete creation or products of society for living e.g., artifacts and other

tangible products.19

Therefore, education is an integral part of culture, and so for any child to develop

educationally, he/she must have a good knowledge of culture and how to apply it to

life. No wonder Cicero (106-43 BC) said that: “We are all called men but only

those of us who are truly human, who are civilized by the studies of proper

culture.”20

In 2014, the Federal Ministry of Education introduced ‘Civic Education’ as a

compulsory subject for all secondary school students, which is primarily designed

and organized in content and function to provide students with rich knowledge and

understanding of their responsibilities as citizens of Nigeria.21

That is not enough.

One suggests that ‘culture’ be made a compulsory subject and included in WAEC,

NECO, NABTEB and JAMB organized examinations. An educated person should

be a cultural and a cultured person who knows the best way of life and why/how to

do what. This is a main theme in Plato’s education principle and can solve some of

the problems of Nigerian secondary schools today.

4. Good Knowledge of Ethics

A child who must be well educated needs to have a good knowledge of

Ethics. Of course, as mentioned earlier, what Socrates and Plato were doing in their

theory of education is ethics of education; their education thoughts are

moral/ethical theorizing. Thus, for Plato’s Socrates, education cannot be separated

from ethics; hence the Socratic paradox that knowledge is virtue, which culminates

in happiness. To be sure, ‘ethics’ is a general term for concerns about what people

191

ought to do, and it is coined from Greek word “ethike” meaning “character.”22

In

other words, ethics is the name given to that most general study of the rightness

and wrongness of human action; it deals with the human “mechanism” of

morality.23

In this case, one as a moral agent is held responsible for one’s actions,

that is, one’s actions are not based on the influence of an authority or ‘magister

dixit’, that is, the ‘master says’, but instead one is free to choose one’s actions.24

Therefore, it becomes imperative that students develop both intellectual and

moral virtues through sound knowledge of ethics for them to make rational and

worthwhile choices in life. It is important to highlight that while intellectual virtue

is achieved through teaching, and education, moral virtue is achieved through habit

and the central theme of ethics is the encouragement of virtues and condemnation

of vices.25

One suggests that Ethics be put in the secondary education curriculum as

distinct, compulsory subjects for all secondary school students in Nigeria, and also

put in NECO, WAEC, NABTEB and JAMB organized examinations. One believes

that when this is done, it will right a lot of wrongs in our secondary schools. Also,

good knowledge of ethics can help students, teachers, parents and even education

administrators to manage ignorance, indolence, laziness, corruption, indiscipline,

self-irrationalism, irrational passions and dissipation in their lives.

5. Summary and Conclusion

It has been shown in this work that Plato’s philosophy of education is an

inherent part of his theory of knowledge. Also, Plato wanted education to be

philosophic. He proved that knowledge is virtue, that wrong act is caused by

ignorance because one who knows the near and remote consequences of one’s

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actions will always do the good. Ignorance deceives the wrong doer to consider

only the immediate result of his wrong act which may have some trivial benefits,

thereby making him do wrong believing that it is good. He also proved that if a

person is rational enough to consider, as far as necessary, he will find out that only

virtue gives happiness. Even if any virtue involves some pain, the pain cannot be

greater than the happiness that it gives because what matters for a virtuous person

is that right things are done, as that will certainly yield happiness later either for

oneself or other.

Plato made us know that through excellent rationality, one can examine

oneself objectively in order for one to capture one’s knowledge and ignorance. If

one must develop, self-knowledge is imperative because it is the only means

through which one can discover that one has limited knowledge and is in the world

to achieve the good and therefore, it makes one develop passion for wisdom and

the good life. For Plato, just like Nigerian traditional education, education is about

functionality. This is a big connection between Plato and Nigerian education. This

is true because a truly educated person must be fully developed in the three

domains of education: Cognitive, Psychomotor, and Affective, that is, the effective

development and use of the 3Hs in education – the Head, the Hand, and the Heart.

An educated person searches for knowledge/virtue as a life-long exercise. Plato and

Nigerian traditional education advocate functionalist kind of education, which

creates precise curiosity in the learner/child in order to produce useful and

competent adult or citizens to meet the needs of the state.

193

Also, Plato made us understand that a wrong-doer harms himself, not only

because of the side-effect and the long-term after-effect of his wrong-doing but

also that he is self-alienated as he losses his consciousness and integrity as a

rational choice-maker. This is because everybody desires the good and nobody

wants to be harmed. It is only the deception of ignorance that makes one believe

that one can make good out of evil. Further, Plato confirmed to us, through his

view of art as mimesis, that every communication of thought cannot be education

because one can communicate wrong or corruptible thought, which can lead

children and consumers astray. Education, therefore, connotes positive, worthwhile

thought/knowledge. Very importantly, Plato gave us special exposé about ‘love’,

saying that love is that which provokes thought and action to achieve the good and

is the force that liberates man from lack, especially lack of knowledge. Therefore,

love is vital to human development because no one can excel in any endeavour

without first having predilection for deep thinking and great passion for excellence.

One of the most fascinating things about the Socratic Plato’s educational

proposals is their logical structure. From all discussed so far, it is understandable

that some major notions in Plato about education and the communication of

knowledge (method of educating) are ‘reason’, ‘order’, and ‘justice.’26

One thinks

that Plato was right in seeing education to be centrally concerned with the

development of morality and reason. However, Plato’s educational proposals are

not arbitrary. They follow quite logically from a combination of value-judgments

and assumptions about human nature; hence he had a worked-out theory of

knowledge, an ethical theory and a theory of human nature. To be sure, Plato

194

assumed that human nature is more or less indefinitely malleable through

education.27

That was why he believed that education can do the whole magic of

achieving the good life and happiness. To be more precise, no educational theory

can be devoid of those major components (theories of knowledge, ethics, and

human nature) as mentioned above, if it must be worthwhile. Hence, education

should concern itself with development of the mind involving understanding and

knowledge which are valuable and which are made possible through a process of

learning linked with human nature, human essence and human happiness.

More so, it should be noted that value judgment underlies Plato’s whole

philosophy (not just education) vis-à-vis the individual, the political system and the

role of the individual in society. In terms of the individual, Plato insisted that the

life of reason is the best life possible through the study of Philosophy, Mathematics

and Harmonics; that is, theoretical reasoning.28

He extended it to a more practical

aspect of reason – the ‘Socratic care of the soul’ which is made manifest in self-

knowledge and self-control.29

Both aspects of reason should take control of human

desire or eros (the instinct of self-preservation, pleasure and procreation). Plato

made us understand that the problem of education is how to produce people in

whom reason is properly developed, who care about the objects of theoretical life,

who are not derailed by subjectivism, self or ego, who know fully and exactly what

they need or want, why they want what, and who have the ‘strength’ of character

and power of will to make the good happen.

It was noted that Plato believed that human nature is infinitely malleable. So,

he believed in nurture, that is, the influence of the environment on the mind. To

195

ground this fact, he gave Alcibiades as an example. Alcibiades was a man born

with a certain potential and high intelligence but because of Alcibiades’ poor early

upbringing (negative child experience), he was so notorious that Socrates even

found it difficult to win him over, and even when Socrates did win him over, their

relationships remained on platonic level due to Alcibiades’ seemingly irreversible

ugly character and ignorance.30

It is worthy of note that the ‘love affair’ between

Socrates and Alcibiades gave the world the concept of ‘platonic love.’

For Plato, whatever is done in education and methodology of guiding people

to knowledge is a way of either developing, in the individual, the understanding of

love of principles and the passion for ‘order’ and symmetry or helping the

individual to accurately apply his/her reason to some control and balance on his/her

desires and motivations. Any ‘order’ outside must reflect the ‘order’ inside the

individual. This whole process is what Plato called ‘turning the eye of the soul

outwards towards the light.’ The method starts with the senses, to emotions and

then to intellectual abilities, making the individual sensitive to the Forms and the

harmony of the Forms, namely the ‘Good.’31

A dissection of education, with special emphasis on secondary education in

Nigeria has been done. Even though Nigeria seemed to have started well regarding

education, with the help of the missionaries, Nigerian secondary education

precisely has been in the doldrums for many decades. Also, a diagnosis of the

problems of education, particularly those of secondary education in Nigeria has

been made. Some people described Nigerian secondary education as dead. One

wonders what its prognosis is because for a ‘dead system’, the next development is

196

decay and annihilation. However, some people expressed the hope that change is

possible. This hope can be turned into reality with the help of Plato’s education

theory. If the Socratic Plato is followed closely, one thinks that what is needed in

this country is proper development and management of the ‘self’, through proper

child education, especially at secondary school level because that is the hub of

education. It follows that the entire problems of poor commitment to duty, poverty

of implementation, delinquency and selfishness, pursuit of fake and quasi-

successes or pseudo-certificates, indiscipline, corruption and general

irresponsibility, experienced in our secondary schools and in the education sector

in Nigeria today, all stem from ignorance and uncritical ‘self-hood.’ Hence, Plato

calls all of us to order, never to lose focus on the ‘light’ – knowledge/virtue,

because that is where full appreciation of the Form, the ‘Good’ and/or ‘True

Happiness’ resides. For Plato, education, just like truth should be unchanging in

terms of its essence – human development.

Indeed, Plato’s education principles are good theoretical framework, which

can address the problems of Nigeria secondary education, namely poor

commitment to teaching and learning, juvenile deliquency, irrelevant curriculum,

lack of know-how/do-how, examination malpractices, obsession of students with

certificates, neglect, and poor funding, corruption, etc. If Nigeria adapts Plato’s

education idea, she will achieve micro-development, which culminates in macro-

development; hence students and everyone involved in secondary education in

Nigeria will be useful citizens, by implication, our secondary education/schools

will be standardized. In other words Nigeria’s secondary education can be run

197

using Plato’s education principles, for correction of errors, stability, and maximum

qualitative output. According to a Russian cybernetician, L.N. Linda, “The

principal shortcoming of ‘instruction’ (education) at present is the fact that it is a

process with poor feedback.”32

Plato's education principle is a good mechanism for

achieving feedback necessary for effective education management. Plato’s

education principles: his dialectic, elenchus, paternalism and emphasis on

virtue/knowledge incline towards the growth, development and effective

management of the human systems in order to achieve the ‘good.’ Thus seen, from

the perspective of Plato’s theory of knowledge, Nigeria can achieve the necessary

changes, which are needed in her secondary education system for maximum

productivity.

198

ENDNOTES

1.

Richard Paul et al, Global Strategies: Socratic Questioning & Role-

Playing: Critical Thinking Handbook: K-3rd Grade (Santa Rosa: Foundation for

Critical Thinking, 1995), 40-41.

2. Richard Paul et al, Global Strategies: Socratic Questioning & Role-

Playing: Critical Thinking Handbook: K-3rd Grade, 40-41.

3.

Richard Paul et al, Global Strategies: Socratic Questioning & Role-

Playing: Critical Thinking Handbook: K-3rd Grade. 40-41.

4.

Richard Paul et al, Global Strategies: Socratic Questioning & Role-

Playing: Critical Thinking Handbook: K-3rd Grade. 40-41.

5.

Richard Paul et al, Global Strategies: Socratic Questioning & Role-

Playing: Critical Thinking Handbook: K-3rd Grade. 40-41.

6.

Richard Paul et al, Global Strategies: Socratic Questioning & Role-

Playing: Critical Thinking Handbook: K-3rd Grade. 40-41.

7.

A.S Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English,

8th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 554.

8.

Federal Government of Nigeria, The Vision 2010 Committee Report

(Abuja: Federal Government Publications, 2003), 71.

9.

Paulin Rose –UN Representative on Education: Africa and Asia, BBC

News: Focus on Africa. 17:40 GMT, 10 June, 2013.

10.

Enojo Kennie Onojo, “Vocational Education and Sustainable Peace and

Security in the Niger-Delta.” African Journal of Social Policy and Administration,

Volume 3 (No 2, 2010), 54.

11.

Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria (Enugu: Fourth Dimension

Publishing Co., Ltd., 1998), 1.

12.

Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria (Enugu: Fourth Dimension

Publishing Co., Ltd., 1998), 2.

13.

Anselm I. Ali, “The Impact of Responsible Parenthood on the Society.”

The Lumen, Volume 11 (No 15, April 2012-March 2013), 45.

14.

A.S Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English,

8th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 1259.

199

15.

Christopher Winch and John Gingell, Key Concepts in the Philosophy of

Education (London: Routledge, 2002), 168-169.

16.

Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Ethics of Identity (Princeton: Princeton

University Press, 2005), 120.

17.

Edward Taylor, Primitive Culture, Volume 1 (London: John Murray,

1972), 1.

18.

E.U.M. Igbo and E.E Anugwom, Sociology: Basic Concepts and Issues

(Nsukka: A.P. Express Publishers, 2001), 47-48.

19.

E.U.M. Igbo and E.E Anugwom, Sociology: Basic Concepts and Issues,

47-48.

20.

Joseph O. Eneh, Unpublished Lecture on Philosophy of Education,

Department of Philosophy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 2004.

21.

Alexander O. A., Standard Civic Education for Senior Secondary Schools

and Colleges (Owerri: Tonnimas & Company Publishers, 2012), 1.

22.

Robert A. Schultz, Contemporary Issues in Ethics and Information

Technology (Hershey: IRM Press, 2006), 1.

23.

John K. Roth ed., Ethics Revised Edition, Volume 1 (Pasadena: Salem

Press, 1994), 474., sv: “Ethics” by Patrick M. O’Neil.

24.

Joseph O. Eneh, War and Peace Aspects of Practical Ethics (Calabar:

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25.

Joseph O. Eneh, War and Peace Aspects of Practical Ethics (Calabar:

Aranedoh, 2001), 35.

26.

R.S. Peters, Education and the Education of Teacher (London: Taylor &

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27.

R.S. Peters, Education and the Education of Teacher, 78.

28.

R.S. Peters, Education and the Education of Teacher, 78.

29.

R.S. Peters, Education and the Education of Teacher, 78.

30.

Plato, Alcibiades,103, 135, John M. Cooper ed., Plato Complete Works.

Translated by D.S Hutchinson. (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

200

31.

R.S. Peters, Education and the Education of Teacher (London: Taylor &

Francis e-Library, 2005), 80.

32.

L.N. Linda, Instructional Regulation and Control: Cybernetics,

Algorithmization and Heuristics in Education (New Jersey: Educational

Technology Publications, 1976), 21.

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Nasiru, S., “Nigeria’s 2013 Budget: Reaction as Education Gets priority.”

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Oral Interviews

Chikeani, J. M., An Oral Interview on the State of Secondary Education in Nigeria.

Conducted on 6 January, 2014.

Ona, C.C., An Oral Interview on the State of Secondary Education in Nigeria.

Conducted on 4 January, 2014.

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Conducted on 15 January, 2014.

Radio Broadcast

Rose, P., UN Representative on Education: Africa and Asia, BBC News: Focus on

Africa. 17:40 GMT, 10 June, 2013.