IMPROVING THE STANDARD AND QUALITY OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN NIGERIA FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (Published)
Globally, education is one of the veritable and potent instruments for change and transformation in the socio-political, scientific and technological spheres of every nation. The primary level of education, though paradoxically neglected in Nigeria is a base and/or foundation of the entire educational system. This is why the importance of functional and pragmatic primary education curriculum is needed to drive home the national development agenda. This paper advocated that the functionality of primary education is what can make education at higher levels a potent instrument for national development. To drive home the objectives of this paper, focus was placed on what is primary education; primary education as well as what national development entails. With more emphasis, emerging challenges of Nigerian primary education like; lack of political commitment, challenges of poor infrastructural facilities, challenges of competent teachers and poor funding were identified. Lastly entrepreneurship education and value education were advocated as possible measures for responding to the challenges of primary education in Nigeria. Summary and suggestions were made.
Keywords: Improving standard and quality, National development, Primary education
