UPE: The National Perspective

Although this book is concerned mainly with UPE in Kano State, it is necessary first to study educational developments in the nation as a whole. Particularly relevant are policies in Southern Nigeria since the Second World War, for they culminated, first in the Western Region in 1955, and then in the Eastern Region in 1957, in earlier programmes for UPE. These projects provided much information useful in assessing the present scheme in Kano. They were also a factor increasing the regional imbalances which the government hopes to rectify with the present national campaign. This chapter, accordingly, will have three sections. In the first, the basic aims of UPE are elucidated. In the second, the logistics and costs of the national scheme are outlined; and in the third the events of the earlier UPE programmes are highlighted.