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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF NUTRITIONAL POLICY AND IMPLEMENTATION IN BASIC 7-9 IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Primary education is typically the first and foundation level of compulsory education in the education industry. The goal of achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE) has been on the international agenda since the universal declaration of Human rights affirmed in 1948, that primary education has to be made freely and compulsory available for all children in all nations. This objective was reinstated subsequently on many occasions by international treaties and in United Nations Conference declaration (Monitoring Report, 2005).

In Nigeria, Primary Education is given in institutions for children aged 6-11 years. It has a duration of 7 years under 7-5-4, 6years under 6-3-3-4 and 6years under the present 9-3-4 systems of education (Wakpa,2015). The major goals of primary education as stated in the national policy on education (FGN,2004) is:

• To inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy and ability to communicate effectively.

• Lay a sound basis for scientific and reflective thinking.

• Give citizenship education as a basis for effective participation in and contribution to the life of the society.

• Mould the character and develop sound attitude and morals in the child.

• Develop in the child the ability to adapt to Childs changing environment.

• Giving the child opportunities for developing manipulative skills that will enable function effectively in the society within the limits of the Childs capacity.

• Provide the child with basic tools for the educational advancement including preparation for trades and the craft of the locality.

The primary education sector in Nigeria includes state funded primary schools, special schools and private primary schools. It is provided by private and public institutions (Awhen, Timipre and Agyngwuye, 2014).

Private Primary Education Private primary education is received from educational institutions at the elementary level where individuals or group of persons, organizations or missions bodies come together to establish and run and education institutions. It is the responsibility of entrepreneurs’, agencies or groups such as religious bodies, communities, universities, corporate bodies and foreign communities to supplement government effort at providing quality public primary education. These are educational institutions that are established, conducted and supported by nongovernmental agencies. They are also not operated by  any public authority regardless of whether they receive financial support from public authorities. The characteristics of private primary schools according to Guga (2014) are as follows:

• Supported by private organization or individuals rather than by the State.

• Independent schools that are supported wholly by the payment of fees.

• Schools that are not administered by local, state or federal government.

• They are schools that retain the right to select their students.

• They are schools that do not rely on mandatory taxation through public or government funding.

The number of private primary schools in Nigeria is increasing with a fast population growth. Public Primary education Public primary education is a system of elementary institutions and measures that ensures the education and upbringings of a pupil in accordance with interest and requirement of society and state. A public primary school in Nigeria is an elementary school supported by public funds and providing free education for children of a community or district. It is maintained at public expense for education of the children of such community or district. These schools are endowed to prepare students chiefly for secondary schools. Public primary schools are owned and funded by federal and state governments.

They are characterized by:

• Tuition free

• Centrally run by boards

• Overseen by the Ministry of Education

• Adjusting managerial styles for improved service delivery.

• Responding to change (innovations improved school provision) (Guga, 2014).

Nigeria has 54,434 public primary schools (Egwu, 2009). Quality Primary Education Quality primary education refers to a system of education that through programming process, structure and contents enables quality learner, quality environment, quality content, quality process and quality outcome (UNICEF, 2000). Most of the United Nations declarations and commitments were silent about the quality of primary education to be provided. Until when the United Nations Dakar Framework Action and Millennium Development Goals stated in the Education For All (EFA) Dakar Goal 2, is to achieve Universal Primary Education by the year 2015 by which time, they run to ensure that all children particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access toKabiru 305 complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality (EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2005). Some of the indicators that may be involved in determining quality or standard of primary education are pupils enrolment/completion rates health/nutrition of pupils, availability of portable water in the schools, provision and utilization of instructional/infrastructural materials, violence free school environment, quality recruitment process of staff, staff retraining process, teacher pupil ratio, teachers readiness, family support services, support from other stakeholders proximity of schools and compliance to school rules and regulations (Shah, Ghazi, Shahzad and Ullah, 2015). Quality primaryeducation in Nigeria is determined by considering the extent to which school, curriculum, teachers, students, teaching-learning materials, learning time, teaching practice, educational administration and community services are available, adequate and accessible (Anero,2013).

Quality assurance in primary education is a mechanism to evaluate the efficiency and appropriateness of teaching and learning in primary/schools so as to ensure the delivery of highmquality education. It is also a holistic method of identifyingand resolving problem within the educational system in order to ensure continuous quality improvement. It can also be described as a means of disseminating information regarding the quality of primary education (Alaba, 2010). According to National Educational QualityAssurance Policy base on National minimum standards on educational establishment institutions Act 16 1985, Nigeria is concerned with eight (8) components of quality standards for educational development which was itemized as:

• Learner achievement and standards.

• Learner welfare and participation.

• Care guidance and support.

• Leadership and management.

• School-community relationship.

• Learning environment.

• Teaching and learning.

• Curriculum and other activities.

Quality primary education is one of the determinants of educational development. In this case, qualitative privateand public primary education and instructions plays agreat role in educational development in Nigeria.

Educational Development in Nigeria

Educational development means expanding the facilities to match numbers with needs of the clientele diversifying teaching – learning situation as well as their content to suit the varying demands of society. It is the process of promoting life, learning through the provision of Education For All in – school and out-of-school and adults or establishing an effective challenge response