INFLUENCE OF MISSIONARY AND COLONIZATION ON EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
Badmus Adejare S.
General Studies Department
The Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki, Oyo State
Email: adejarebadmus@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Colonialism and education are two main ways through which European powers perpetuated under development in Africa. Though education predates colonialism, but the European nations used their strong powers to introduce a system of education that were so foreign, whose aim was to ensure that African nations were subjugated and exploited. Colonialism arose out of the need for European nations to have direct political control over their colonies so as to ensure the protection of their economic interest. So, colonialism is not just merely a system of exploitation, but one whose main purpose was to repatriate the profits to the metropolis. By exporting the profits created by African Labor to Europe, the development of Europe was assured. However, education, no doubt had serious influence on the development of Nigeria. In this study, efforts were made to juxtapose both the positive and negative impacts of education on national development. The study revealed that the benefits that accrued to Nigeria in terms of social, political, economic development outweighed the negative effects on the cultural negligence. It was recommended that more budgetary allocation should be given to the education sector so as to bring it back to its status when the colonialists were at the helm of affairs in Nigeria.
Keywords: Education, Colonization, Missionary, Economic, Development.
