Government is a human organization which exists for the maintenance of cohesion and order in a country. On the other hand, education, which could be formal or informal, serves as one of the major instruments of Government for inculcating in the people, the norms, morals and other behavioural patterns that are necessary for the survival of the people as a nation. Consequently, the level of a country’s development significant in determining the role of the Government in society.
In traditional societies, where education is informal and is a collective responsibility of the people, a loose or unstructured form of government exist that ensures the child is fully integrated into the culture of the people. The role of Government in such a society may not be financially involved in curriculum planning and implementation but is manifested in the enforcement of sanctions on people for anti-social behaviour.
In contemporary society however, Government is more pervasive by participating in education through curriculum design and innovations, provision of equipment, personnel and funds for supervision and control of man and materials .The Nigerian Government, for instance, prepares the educational policy to be followed. The educational policy in Nigeria, known as ‘9-3-4 system’, is super-structure in Nigerian Policy on Education. The Nigerian Government, in the 1976 Education Policy, provided free education for children of primary school age (UPE), which made it mandatory for parents to send their children to school.
Formal education involves a lot of capital therefore; the Government provides the buildings, the equipment and machinery for schools, colleges and universities. In a few cases, the Government has provided books and stationery for the students in recent times, the Nigerian Government has embarked on the supply of ‘INTRO-TECH’ machines to secondary schools.
Another major area where the influence of Government is felt in education is in the provision of personnel to implement its educational programmes. It does this by ensuring that qualified staff is brought on the job, while existing ones are retrained through the ‘in-service scheme’, while others participate in various sandwich programmes to help them grow on the job. Occasionally, the Government may use expatriate teachers through exchange programmes to fill up staff demand in certain subject areas where there is a dearth of teachers.
In contemporary society therefore, while it is acknowledged that the private sector has a role to play in society, it is abundantly clear that the primary role of Government is to educate its citizenry.
