The 1926 Education Ordinance - Part 4

The 1926 Education Ordinance

In the month of March 1925, a memorandum on Education Policy in British

Tropical Africa was dispatched to the colonies as the basis for the British colonial education policy. The need to provide a modus operandi for this memorandum and the necessity to stop the mushroom primary schools from operating in Southern Nigeria provided the impetus for this ordinance. The ordinance was a landmark in the development of education in Nigeria and an outcome of the recommendations of the 1920 Phelps – Stoke Commission on Education in Africa. Its terms of reference include:-

(a) To inquire into existing educational work in each of the areas to be studied;

(b)To investigate the educational needs of the people in their religious, social, hygienic and economic conditions;

(c) To ascertain the extent to which these educational needs were being met; and

(d)To make available in full the result of the study.

The report of this commission geared the British Colonial Administration to demonstrate increased interest in African education. It issued its first educational policy in 1925. The 1925 memorandum outlined guidelines for operation in the colonial educational system. This policy consisted mainly of the recommendations of the Phelps-Stoke Commission. These include the following:-

(i) Establishment of advisory boards of education that will assist in supervision of educational institutions.

(ii)  Adaptation of formal education to local conditions

(iii) Study of vernaculars in schools

(iv) Thorough supervision and inspection of schools

(v) Education of women and girls

(vi) Emphasis on religious training and moral instructions (Osokoya, 2002). While the recommendations of the 1926 Education Ordinance are:-

(i) Making registration of teachers a pre-condition for teaching in any school in Southern Nigeria.

(ii)  Disallowing the opening of schools without the approval of the Director of Education and the Board of Education.

(iii) Authorizing the closure of any school, which was conducted in a way that was in conflict with the interest of the people or the host community.

(iv) Specifying the functions and duties of supervisors or mission school inspectors.

(v) Expanding and strengthening the existing Board of Education by including the Director and the Deputy Director of Education, the Assistant Director, ten representatives of the mission and other educational agencies.

 (vi) Regulating the minimum pay for teachers who were employed in an assisted school (Osokoya, 2002 and Fabunmi, 2003).