THE IMPACT OF WESTERN EDUCATION ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF GOMBE STATE (A CASE STUDY OF FUNAKAYE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The research highlights on the impact of western education on socio economic development in Funakaye Local Government Area is an attempt to find out impact of western education on economic development of the people of Funakaye. Many people have carried out researches similar to this work but up to now in this area of the country very little is done.
Therefore, the coming of western education to this area, people of Funakaye Local Government Area were practicing indigenous system of education. But as a result of’ some research that were carried out by scholars have found that the western education have superseded the indigenous system of education so this research intends to carry out studies in order to verify the previous results.
The education tradition began seriously in Nigeria with the Wesleyan Christian Missionary at Badagry in 1842. It has obviously been the most successful in meeting the overall formal educational needs of the consumers, for the present and for the future. Schools were built and the mission struggled for pupils and members such that there was a proliferation of primary schools established by different missions. Okebukola (2011). Western education was introduced in Nigeria state around 1923 by Christian Missionaries in Bambur, Karim-Lamido Local Government Area. According to Peter (2001), since the introduction, the Christian Missionaries have contributed significantly to education. Nigerian people have great faith in education as a vital instrument for social and economic emancipation of the country and its citizens. The social demand for education had been sustained over the years, and this helps to explain the phenomenal expansion of the education system since national independence in 1960. The historical overview of the development of United Methodist Church participation in education in Nigeria, presents the fact that over 50 percent of all primary and secondary schools in Nigeria were private schools owned and managed by private organizations, to complement the role of the United Methodist, proprietors, individual entrepreneurs, tribal, town unions, and communities which contributed in building schools to the point at which they now constitute the dominant educational institutions in every part of Nigeria.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The past studies suggest that in the older day’s educational setting of the people in Funakaye Local Government Area was adequate for them. Later these indigenous types of education become inadequate with the coming of western education due to the fact that they could not read. Funakaye is a local government area in Gombe State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Bajoga. It has an area of 20.09 km2 and a population of 103,510 at the 2006 census.
Formal education was introduced into Nigeria in the 16th century, before its introduction, indigenous education was being practiced. This was non-formal and non-certified in terms of competencies, and took place at various stages of a child’s life, knowledge was presumed to be static and the pedagogic techniques used were basically memorization and the strict imitation of adults behaviour, questioning the logic, meaning or analyses of knowledge was discouraged as children were to be seen but not heard Lesourd (1996). In spite of the shortcomings the pre-literate, African societies had holistic training and education for all members of the communities. The education is lifelong which satisfied the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of the individuals. However, Western colonial education which was introduced in Nigeria had ideas and practices similar to British colonial education. The aim of British colonial education was to train clerks for administration and for commercial activities. Christian missionaries later established schools which were tailored towards the British structure, curriculum and organisation. British colonial education therefore inculcated into Nigerians foreign ideologies, culture and values. In the same vein, learning was tailored towards teaching and mastery of specific subject and one’s level of ability was determined by the capacity to memorize and reproduced facts from these subjects. According to Blege (1996) colonial educationists believe that schools and colleges must help their pupils solve only mental problems while educational functionalists believe that school is an integral, functioning part of the society, vital to its continuation and survival and therefore academic knowledge is useful only if it can be applied to solve societal problems or otherwise it becomes detrimental to the society. Whitty (1991) stated that British colonial education laid no explicit emphasis on social and political education. No wonder in Nigeria vocational and practical training were regarded as suitable only for people of low academic ability and most parents strongly objected to their children going into apprenticeship or vocational schools instead of academic institutions because of the colonial mentality that linked status to academic qualifications. For education is supposed to transform a society from pre-literate to contemporary nationhood, however, the sort of transformation that took place in Nigeria could not help the country revolutionalize and modernize the economy to meet the demands of the growing society because the education system did not emphasis the teaching of life employed nor self-employed as they lack skills for any profession. Historical hostilities and rivalries among many of the peoples agglomerated within Nigeria accounted for some of the conflicted sense of common national identity. The colonial legacy contributed significantly, however, to furthering the collision of loyalties in the new nation. For instance, the structure of British colonial administration of the artificially drawn territory restricted development of a national consciousness within the broad expanse of Nigeria's borders. Britain's practice of indirect rule in colonial Nigeria perpetuated separate ethnic and local identities. By using traditional native institutions and tractable tribal chieftains as their functionaries in exercising the doctrine of indirect rule that colonial administrator Frederick Lugard fashioned, the British sheltered the parochial political patterns of many ethnic groups. Particularly in the north, where Hausa-Fulani tribal leaders resisted European education, indirect rule contributed to the persistence of isolated tribal identity. British regional government further compounded the persistence of separateness. Although united under a governor, colonial administration from 1906 to 1922 divided Nigeria into the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, which included Lagos, and the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. That administration was further fragmented into the Northern, Eastern, and Western Regions maintained from 1922 to 1957, with the Federal Territory of Lagos created in 1954. These regions became essentially self-governing in 1960 at the time of Nigeria's independence as a tenuous federation. The colonial structure maintained ethnic isolation and reinforced it with regionalism--a situation inherited by the independent nation. With the larger ethnic groups dominating the separate political regions, the colonial experience provided little basis for fusing ethnic groups in any common sense of nationalism. It certainly fostered no history or tradition of national community. The education was therefore, found to be ineffective and inadequate to the needs and aspirations of Nigeria society.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The research have intend to relate the aims of finding out how the people settle in the area, how was their culture compared to the lastly how was their agricultural Practices, therefore the coming of’ western education in addition; the researcher also want to find Out the people opinion about the changes they encounter as a result of western education.


1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
No doubt western education has influence on socio-economic development generally in Funakaye Local Government Area. In spite of this influence the research intend to determine the influence of the western education in some fields such as trades and crafts agricultural and cultural selling of the people in the area. these have summed up the purpose this study.
1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATION
The entire topic of this will just cover the area of Funakaye Local Government where by the information to be gathered should be limited to some selected villages and Bajoga itself a part in Funakaye. The other villages include: Ashaka, Magaba, Bage and Ashaka Gari the research are confronted with problems of transportation because of the nature of the roads, some of the villages are inaccessible during rainy season. Apart from transportation, financial constraints coupled with current social unrest hindered the quality completion of this work.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTION
The research question should include:
1. What are the effects of western education on trade and crafts of the people of Funakaye Local Government Area?
2. What are the contributions of western education in the lives of people of Funakaye Local Government Area?
3. What are its effects on agricultural practice?
4. Does it affect their cultural setting in terms of settlements and building?
1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS/RESEARCH QUESTION
Western education rather than indigenous form of education is believed to have had a greater influence in the development of the society which includes: marriage, health and culture, in general the total way of life. Therefore, this project is based on the following hypothesis:
1. Western education has contribution to the many things in the life of the people in Funakaye Local Government Area by establishing schools, healthcare, and construction of roads etc.
2. Western education has effect on trade and craft of the people in Funakaye Local Government Area. .
3. Western education has improved agriculture by providing machines and supplying fertilizer.
4. Western education have effect on cultural setting of people in Funakaye Local Government Area in term of settlements and building but not as much possible might have thought.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERM
There are many terms that are used in this research, but the most important and related terms to be defined in order to bring the concept of the research into light are as follow:
a. Culture: this is the total way of life of the people in their society or community.
b. Development: mean modernization industrialization economic growth and distributive justice on the living condition at the majority of the population.
c. Education: it refers to the total process of learning by which knowledge is imparted
d. Impact: means impression or effect or influence in relation to this study, it means the formal type of education introduced by the European Christian Missionaries made chance in some aspects of life of people in Funakaye Local Government Area.

1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1. To describe the distinctive advantage of western education to people of Funakaye Local Government Area.
2. To encourage the illiterate youths of Funakaye in order to engage themselves in to western education.
3. To expatiate a well recognizable advantage of western education to tenants of Funakaye.
4. To falsify all the ruthless thoughts that will discourage the youths of Funakaye and direct them to straight path of the moral teachings of western education.
5. To humanize the youths of Funakaye in studying the courses that will improve socio-economic development in their area.

    Date: 2026-08-02 00:00:00.000000