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the commission examined the organization, administration and
management of education in the Region, and commented critically
on the operation of the Universal Primary Education Scheme and its
effect on the finances and budget of the Region. Its recommendations,
which are about to be published, have been accepted by the Govern-
ment and will guide future development in all educational planning
below the university level.

In April, 1959, the Federal Minister of Education appointed
a commission "to conduct an investigation into Nigeria's needs in
the field of Post-School Certificate and Higher Education over the
next twenty years." This commission was initiated by the Federal
Government in association with the Regions, and its findings in
the sphere of higher education were expected to influence develop-
ments in the Federation as a whole. One of the tasks which this
commission undertook was to assess the manpower needs of the country
as a whole and to relate the educational development to these needs.
The report admitted that "it would be short-sighted policy to allow
the educational system of a country to be controlled solely by
'consumer needs' for manpower." Nevertheless the commission members
stressed that "it is part of the duty of an educational system to
meet these needs, and in a young country particularly they must
be given prominence." They went on to say that "modern dams,
power stations, textile factories, or steel mills can be constructed
within a few years. But it takes ten or fifteen years to develop

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the managers, the administrators and the engineers to operate them." The commission laid stress on the urgency of relating educational planning to much-needed developments within the country; its emphasis on this particular aspect of Nigerian education reflects the dissatisfaction felt by all observers with the existing academic and literary system to which we have often referred.

In round figures they estimated that Nigeria's minimum high-level manpower needs (i.e., people with post-secondary education) over the next ten years would be in the region of 80,000. About 30,000 of these are described as "senior: managerial, professional, and administrative" personnel. Ideally, all of these should be graduates or the equivalent, and in any case some 20,000 of them must be graduates. This involves an annual flow of at least 2,000 graduates from Nigerian universities. The present flow is of the order of 300 from Ibadan University College, which was, until less than a year ago, the only university institution in the country. About 600 graduates are produced annually from among Nigerian men and women studying in British, European and American universities. In addition to the 30,000 men and women with "senior" qualifications, no fewer than 50,000 people with "intermediate" qualifications will be needed. By intermediate qualifications the commission means those which call for two or three years of full-time study after School Certificate (i.e., end of the secondary school course), in technical institutes or

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agricultural colleges, or a correspondingly longer period of
part-time study associated with apprenticeship schemes or schemes
of in-service training. If the proposals of the commission are
accepted as the target for Nigerian educational advance in the
next ten years, then the number of primary school pupils will be
doubled, the number of students in secondary schools quadrupled,
and those in university institutions increased five-fold. The
commission recognizes that the Nigerian economy cannot bear this
enormous expansion and urges that international aid in men and
material be sought.

This comprehensive report, covering in great detail
every aspect of Nigerian educational development, must be regarded
as the first attempt to carry out a full-scale survey of the
educational needs of a West African country. Since its appearance,
other West African countries have made plans to undertake similar
surveys. The third commission to investigate education in Nigeria
was that appointed by the Government of the Western Region to carry
out a survey of all education in that Region up to the School
Certificate stage. It was designed to do for the Western Region
work similar to that performed by the Eastern Region Commission.

It is significant that within a short period of three
years (1958-1960) three commissions have been appointed to examine
the Nigerian educational system. These commissions were all
international in character. The commission which investigated the
system of education in the Eastern Region was made up of American,

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British and Nigerian educators, and the project itself was largely financed by the Ford Foundation. The commission which investigated Higher Education in the Federation as a whole had altogether nine members, three each from Britain, America, and Nigeria, and was financed by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Western Region Commission also had outside members.

The international character of these commissions reflects the determination of the Governments of the Federation not to imitate, slavishly, the educational system of any one country. In the past, and largely through historical accidents, Nigerian educational theory and practice had been decisively influenced by the British pattern. Emphasis on the grammar school and its elitish tendencies is not necessarily the recipe for Nigeria. One important fact that has emerged from the work of these commissions is that most Nigerians are now skeptical about leaning too heavily upon the educational system of any particular country. They are recognizing, increasingly, that the American or British systems were fashioned out of the needs and historical forces operating in those countries and that the patterns they have evolved may not necessarily apply to Nigeria. This elementary fact, it must be admitted, has not been grasped by some Nigerian educators; there are still fanatics who imagine that their mission is to impose on Nigeria a particular brand of education which has caught their fancy; and who have not bothered to study the

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particular needs of the country or tried to adapt their educa-
tional practices and precepts to the Nigerian situation. The
truth, of course, is that education in Nigeria today is in a
state of flux. It will take at least a decade, possibly a
generation, before the many experiments now being tried out can
take root. Until then one cannot yet speak of such a thing as a
*Nigerian* educational system.

Mention must also be made of the great interest being
shown in Nigerian education in this critical period by many
countries and organizations. As noted above, the commissions
discussed above have been mainly financed by American Foundations.
Outside aid has been of great value in reassessing the existing
system, and in relating education to the needs of the country.
The psychological effect of this generous gesture from the out-
side is that Nigerians now feel that the outside world wants
their great experiment in education to succeed; that with the
coming of independence when the destiny of the continent is
entirely in the hands of Africans themselves, the more advanced
parts of the world are willing and ready to share their educa-
tional experience and technical knowhow. The task has only
begun, but the willing and generous co-operation already mani-
fested by the highly developed countries of Europe and America
in African educational advance augurs well for the future.