review-of-the-literature-on-basic-education-in-nigeria-june-2014-3-1

Review <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>literature</strong> on basic education in Nigeria2011). Tertiary education is delivered through universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges <strong>of</strong>education provided by a mixture <strong>of</strong> federal, state and private institutions.Given <strong>the</strong> ever-increasing demands for basic education, <strong>the</strong> government now explicitly acknowledges <strong>the</strong>need to include non-state providers as a means <strong>of</strong> achieving its educational aims, provided <strong>the</strong>y meetgovernment standards (FME 2004a; Larbi et al. 2004). These include for-pr<strong>of</strong>it schools, religious schools(generally Muslim or Christian) that include some secular subjects in <strong>the</strong>ir curriculum, and voluntary orcommunity-based institutions.The <strong>of</strong>ficial age for entering Primary 1 is six years old. There is now a system <strong>of</strong> automatic promotion, andpolicy dictates that <strong>the</strong> Primary School Leaving Certificate awarded at <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> Primary 6 should nolonger be a standard terminal exam but based purely on continuous assessment (CA) (FME 2004a).However, in reality, practices vary (see Section 4.5). Similarly, <strong>the</strong> Junior School Certificate awarded at <strong>the</strong>end <strong>of</strong> JSS III should be based on a combination <strong>of</strong> CA and state exams (FME 2011a). Three years <strong>of</strong> seniorsecondary schooling culminate in <strong>the</strong> Secondary School Certificate Examination, issued by <strong>the</strong> WestAfrican Examination Council (WAEC) or <strong>the</strong> National Examination Council (NECO), depending on <strong>the</strong>examination board used.Public education at <strong>the</strong> federal level is directed by <strong>the</strong> government-funded FME, under which lies <strong>the</strong>more recently formed UBEC, whose responsibilities are outlined more fully in sections 6.2 and 6.3.Although a government-funded department, it is also supported by international development agenciessuch as UNICEF (in particular), DFID, UNESCO, and <strong>the</strong> World Bank, and supported on <strong>the</strong> ground byvarious local and international NGOs. At state level, SUBEBs are responsible for basic education, whilewithin each LGA <strong>the</strong> LGEA is responsible.1.3 MethodologyThis <strong>review</strong> is nei<strong>the</strong>r systematic nor exhaustive but is as wide-ranging as possible and selective withincertain parameters. Literature is included from 2000 to 2013, and mostly <strong>literature</strong> specifically aboutNigeria. Reports that covered West Africa and/or sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) were generally onlyconsidered if <strong>the</strong>re was a whole chapter devoted to Nigeria.Occasional reference to <strong>literature</strong> outside <strong>of</strong> Nigeria has been made when <strong>the</strong>re was a paucity <strong>of</strong>relevant <strong>literature</strong> on a particular topic or to reinforce a point, but on <strong>the</strong> whole we have tried to avoidincluding too much <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> more general <strong>literature</strong> on SSA or even West Africa in order to keep <strong>the</strong><strong>review</strong> focused.Various search strategies were used to access <strong>the</strong> <strong>literature</strong>. For <strong>the</strong> grey <strong>literature</strong>, EDOREN teammembers contacted various government organisations – such as <strong>the</strong> National Commission for Colleges<strong>of</strong> Education (NCCE), <strong>the</strong> Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) and <strong>the</strong>Nigerian Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) – to seek specific reports that were already knownabout or that were mentioned in o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>literature</strong>. They also made enquiries to see what o<strong>the</strong>r reportshad been produced or studies carried out by <strong>the</strong> department that <strong>the</strong>y were able to share.International journal articles and reports were sought via <strong>the</strong> usual international search engines such asERIC, JSTOR, OCLOC World Cat and Google Scholar using a list <strong>of</strong> search terms (see Appendix II).Some articles in Nigerian journals were available online; o<strong>the</strong>rs were only available in hard copy. Mostdid not involve empirical study but we have cited some articles that were general in nature and gave anoverview <strong>of</strong> an issue (for example, about <strong>the</strong> difficulties <strong>of</strong> implementing UBE) or which covered topicswhere empirical data were scarce.EDOREN – Education Data, Research and Evaluation in Nigeria 6