Repositioning Primary Education in Nigeria: Implications for Mathematics and Science Education

Primary education in Nigeria has undergone tremendous and positive changes in both contents and methods since the colonial era. Primary education level is the foundation of the entire education system. Success or failure at this level affects the whole system positively or negatively. Primary school teachers play and will continue to play significant roles in the development and implementation of basic education curricula for sustainable development in the arts, social sciences, management, pure and applied sciences through teaching, research and evaluation of not only classroom instructional objectives but also the entire educational goals as enshrined in the National Policy on Education (FGN, 2014). Today primary education in Nigeria is facing imminent collapse due to some emerging issues such as poor funding, inadequate competent teachers, poor learning environments and a catalogue of other challenges in primary schools. This paper examined the foregoing challenges and suggested ways of repositioning primary education in Nigeria. A solid foundation of primary education is a panacea for sustainable secondary and tertiary education. Transformation of tertiary education must as a matter of necessity start from primary schools.