Pragmatism and Nigerian Education

Each philosophical school of thoughts have their own aims of education based on what they believe in. In this post, I will consider a few of them.

The pragmatist philosopher believes that the aim of education should be that all people shall have the fullest and finest life possible. Education then becomes teaching children how to live. This they believe is to be achieved by taking three steps which are; providing opportunity to live, providing learning experiences as well as providing conditions for proper character development.

Since education is not just preparation for life but life itself, the pragmatist philosopher opines that education should aim at being functional that is, it should serve a practical purpose. In other words, it should be useful and it should also be a means of earning a living or getting employment. The aspect of "being useful" talks about functionalism while the later entails instrumentalism.

Pragmatists also opine that education should help the individual to develop his ability to reason and understand what he does. The school should provide the suitable environment for this.

Influence of Pragmatism on Nigerian Education

In recent years, Nigerian education has become increasingly influenced by pragmatism. The ideas that education should be functional, practical and serve as a means for earning useful living have resulted to the introduction of vocational, commercial, technical and comprehensive schools in Nigeria. The 6-3-3-4 system of education practiced in Nigeria was strongly influenced by pragmatic ideas.

Secondly, the introduction of integrated studies example, integrated science, social studies, are a result of pragmatic influence because they are in support of integration of knowledge. New methods of teaching introduced by pragmatists have gradually come into the Nigerian educational institutions. Notable among these are the project method and the experimental method. These are widely used in the tertiary institutions and the discovery and problem-solving methods are also used but they are yet to b popular.

Lastly, the pragmatists are strongly in favour of the objective type of questions. This method of assessment has widely gained ground at all levels of education in Nigeria. Most of the national common entrance examinations and the continuous assessment tests at the University level are the objective type.