British Colonial Administration and Development of Western Education in Ilorin Emirate, 1900–1960

Abstract

Western education was introduced into Nigeria by the Christian Missions in 1842. The first among them to arrive was the Wesleyan Methodist Missions, followed by the Church Missionary Society, the Baptist Missions and the Roman Catholic Missions. They embarked upon the opening of a number of primary schools for the general education of the converts. By 1900, the colonial government embarked on reforms in such areas as the judiciary in 1903 and consequently eroded the power of the Emir who was regarded as the highest judicial authority in legal matters. In 1907, the colonial government introduced a district head system. Despite this, the colonial government went ahead to pursue effectively the introduction of Western education amongst the Muslim Community of Ilorin. In the year 1915, a provincial school was established with a view to providing the desired personnel to serve the Native Authority. However, before 1915, six Ilorin Malams were at the Nasarawa School in Kano. But Western education was not welcomed readily by the Muslim Community of Ilorin. They showed their hatred against Western education because they regarded it as being foreign and antithetical to the teaching of the Quranic education that the people were familiar with. But this anti-colonial feeling to education was not peculiar to Ilorin alone but the whole of Northern Nigeria. Therefore, an attempt will be made to look into the place of the British colonial administration in the development of Western education in Ilorin, 1900–1960, a major area that had not been given adequate attention by scholars.

Appendices

Appendices

Appendix A: List of Secondary Schools in Ilorin, 1915–60

S. No.	Name	Year found	Proprietor
1.	Provincial Secondary School Ilorin (Now Government Secondary School, Ilorin)	1915	Government
2.	Ilorin Middle School	1930	Government
3.	Ilorin Teacher’s College (Now Sheik Abdulkadir College, Ilorin)	1953	Government
4.	Queen Elizabeth Secondary School, Ilorin	1956	Government

Appendix B: List of Primary Schools in Ilorin from 1915 to 1960

S. No.	Name	Year found	Proprietor
1.	Ilorin Provincial Secondary School, Ilorin	1915	Government
2.	Oke-Suna Primary School, Ilorin	1915	Government
3.	St. Barnabas Anglican Mission Primary School, Ilorin	1917	Government
4.	Pakata Primary School, Ilorin	1934	Government
5.	Baptist Day Primary School, Ilorin	1942	Baptist Mission
6.	United Primary School, Ilorin	1944	Community
7.	Okelele Primary School, Ilorin	1946	Government
8.	Ansarul Islam Primary School, Okekere, Ilorin	1947	Voluntary Organization
9.	Alore Primary School, Ilorin	1948	Government
10.	Baboko Primary School, Ilorin	1949	Government
11.	Ipata Primary School, Ilorin	1950	Government
12.	Ansarul Islam Primary School, Oke-Aluko, Ilorin	1954	Voluntary Organization
13.	Wesley Local Government Education Area Primary School	1959	Christian Mission
14.	Oke-Ebo Alaso Primary School, Ilorin	1959	Government
15.	Saint James Christ Apostolic Church Primary School, Ilorin	1959	Roman Catholic
16.	Adeta Local Government Education Authority Primary School, Ilorin	1960	Government