Educational Reform: What Papa Awo and his political party, Action Group (AG) did in the West in the 50s Within Four Years.

I wrote this essay for my Facebook audience. 

Given the interest some of my friends and family have shown since I shared the video showing children eating on the ground, I decided to share this story as well, and bring to your attention a firsthand information of what Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his followers actually did in 1952 to boost popular education in the Western region of Nigeria, including the old Midwest region. Within four years, these guys were able to develop, not just a blueprint, but a robust plan of action that saw the successful implementation of a Universal Free Primary Education program that turned out to be one of the best organized in the whole world. I repeat, one of the best held in the world as a whole.

So, find below some excerpts from a paper written by S. Ademola Ajayi, titled "THE DEVELOPMENT OF FREE PRIMARY EDUCATION SCHEME IN WESTERN NIGERIA, 1952-1966: AN ANALYSIS."

"The Action Group Party led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo won the first election to the Western House of Assembly in 1952. In his first budget speech, Chief Awolowo (who functioned then as the Regional Minister for Local Government and as well the unofficial Leader of Government Business) made it clear to the members of the House that his government would give top priority to education, among other things, as far as that budget would allow. He spelled this out as a basic principle by which his party was to be guided. “As he stressed in later years, “as far as possible, expenditure on services which tend to the welfare and health and education of the people should be increased at the expense of any expenditure that does not answer to the same test” (Awolowo 1960:263).

"In July of the same year (1952), the Minister of Education for the Western Region, Chief S. O. Awokoya, presented a comprehensive set of proposals calling for a free, universal and compulsory education otherwise known as the Universal Primary Education (U.P.E.) for the Western Region by January 1955 (Awokoya’a Proposal 1952). To make such a programme possible without lowering standards drastically, the minister included in his proposal a massive teacher-training programme, the expansion of teacher training facilities and secondary schools, the introduction of secondary technical education and Modern Secondary school (Western House of Assembly Debates: 30 July 1952). This was the prelude to the birth of what Babs Fafunwa (1974:168) has described as “the boldest and perhaps the most unprecedented educational scheme in Africa South of the Sahara” as an ample demonstration of the Western Regional government’s wholehearted commitment to the vital interest of her subjects."

"The Launching and Implementation of the Scheme With the introduction of Awokoya’s proposal, the Western Nigerian government began to make a series of preparations from July 1952 to December 1954 to meet the January 1955 deadline. Among other measures, there was a massive teacher-training programme put in place to complement the existing one. Similarly, facilities for secondary schools were expanded while the pre-1955 period also witnessed the introduction of secondary technical education and secondary modern schools. As planned by the government, the Free Education scheme was formally introduced on 17 January 1955. “The launching of this scheme”, says Fajana, “was a milestone in the educational history of Nigeria.” A remarkable feature of the educational reform of this era was the rapid numerical growth of schools at all levels–primary, secondary (modern and grammar) as well as tertiary. Teacher training institutions were equally expanded, all with the aim of translating the proposal of the government into reality. The greatest expansion of this period was at the primary school level. Thus, the number of primary schools rose from 3,550 in 1952 to 6,274 by the end of 1954. By 1955, the figure had risen to 6,407. By the end of 1958, the number of primary schools had risen as high as 6,670."

"In 1952 when Awokoya presented his historic proposal before the Western House of Assembly, the number of children at school in the region then was 381,000. The total number of children of school age by then was estimated at 1,146,000. Going by that estimate, the number of children not at school, therefore, was about 765,000 or 66.75 percent of children of school age. During the first six years of Free Universal Primary Education, there were increases in both boys’ and girls’ enrollment. This was to be expected though not to the extent to which it did occur. In the 1954 school year, 456,600 pupils were attending primary schools in Western Nigeria, but when the scheme was launched in 1955 January, 811,432 children turned up, making an increase of 354, 832 over the figure of the enrollment for the previous year. These figures represented a jump from 35 percent to 63 percent of the 5-14-year-old." Some excerpts from "Bridging the Educational Gap Between Southern and Northern Regions of Nigeria: The Need for an Integrative Model and a Progressive Political Option."

That was the Awo Miracle. Emphasis was first, on Teacher Training Colleges. Today, we are closing down our colleges of education all over the country, yet we are the first to ridicule Teachers who do not speak good English or have difficulties writing a simple sentence. Vice President Osinbajo is married to Awo's granddaughter. Also, former Senator Ojudu Babafemi the Political Adviser to the Vice President and the President is an Awoist. Therefore, it is not out of point to say, Awo and what he stood for ought to be adequately reflected in the present administration. I beg to conclude. 

Mr. Alex Aidaghese