CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
The advantages of education to human and national development have been well documented in the literature (Adeniran, 2009; Salman, Olawoye & Yahaya, 2011). For instance, education has generally been identified as a major factor in development (Mansaray, 1991; UNDP, 2002; UNESCO, 2003; Salman, Olawoye & Yahaya, 2011). Also there are established correlation between access to education and increasing level of development, irrespective of the pattern of measurement adopted to measure development (Cochrane, Mehra & Osheba, 1985; Anderson, 1988; Babalola, 1995; King, 1995; Obanya, 2003; UNESCO, 2003). The observed importance of education in engineering both human and material development encourages nations to periodically carry out educational reforms, ‗designed to bring about positive changes and new development in one or more aspects of educational system of a nation‘ (Adeniran, 2009). Nigeria is no exception to this general norm, and has carried out diverse educational reforms, right from the pre-independence era to date (Salman, Olawoye & Yahaya, 2011). The various educational reforms witnessed in Nigeria, among others include: the 1955 Universal Primary Education (UPE) in the Western Region; the reform that brought about the National Curriculum Conference in 1969, the basis for the formulation of the National Policy on Education by the Nigerian government in 1977 (Salman, Olawoye & Yahaya, 2011). However, the Nigerian National Policy on Education has been revised four different times; in 1981, 1998, 2004 and 2007, while other reforms introduced by the Federal Government of Nigeria include: the Universal Primary Education in 1976, the 6- 3-3-4 System of Education in 1981, the Computer Education in 1988, the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and the Universal Basic Education in1999 (Lawal, 2007). Oladosu (2007) highlighted eight factors which prompted the current education reforms in Nigeria. These are: clear evidence that 43 per cent of the Nigerian population can neither read nor write (i.e. sixty million, two hundred thousand Nigerians are illiterates); only 51 per cent of practicing teachers are professionally qualified to be in the classroom, and the low level of infrastructural facilities and instructional materials across all levels of the educational system (UNESCO, 2003; Salman, Olawoye & Yahaya, 2011). Apart from these, not every Nigerian has equal access to education; partly as a result of gender prejudice and socio-cultural misconceptions, and other related factors (Oladosu, 2007). Also, there are significant differences in learners‘ academic achievement and the quality of education received by Nigerians living in different parts of the country (UNESCO, 2003; Salman, Olawoye & Yahaya, 2011). Besides, Nigerian schools tend to emphasise the learning of theories to the detriment of technical knowledge, vocational know-how and entrepreneurial skills. Above all, the curriculum content calls for drastic and urgent review in favour of relevance and practical orientation of learners (Oladosu, 2007).
Statement of the Problem
As a result of vigorous efforts by the Nigerian government to encourage females participation in part-time NCE programmes to enhance their contributions to educational development of the nation (FGN, 1977; 1981; 1998; 2004 & 2007), females participation in the programmes have improved significantly as many females that dropped out of UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 5 formal education readily participate in the programmes (Oladosu, 2007; Adetunde & Akensina, 2008). Although historical antecedence of south-western Nigeria in western education, the old western region being the region where Universal Primary Education (UPE) was introduced in 1955 and ‗Free Education at all Levels‘ was introduced in 1979, might play some roles in explaining the rate of participation of females in educational programmes in the region (Adetunde & Akensina, 2008), the unprecedented increasing level of participation of females in part-time NCE programmes deserves empirical investigations. Salient question arising from the observed trends in females participation in part-time NCE programmes in south-western Nigeria is: To what extent do the sociocultural and economic factors influence female participation in (enrolment, class attendance, classroom interaction, continuous assessment, and social activities) in parttime NCE programmes in south-western Nigeria, especially now that education is generally, seen as a sine qua non to individual career development?
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