The Ibibio always ask for school (Cheesman, 1932).

In Ibibioland, the Missions were judged by the quality of their schools (Ann. Rep., 1944).

A distinctive characteristic of the colonial period in Nigeria following the imposition of a pax Britannica was the expansion of Christianity and Western education - the first one, by various missionary organisations, and the other one, by these organisations primarily, supplemented by the colonial government and the Native Administration (NA) authorities. Western education brought about profound socio-economic and political changes in Opobo Division, as in other regions of Nigeria.

In Opobo Division, Western education made a very slow initial progress. The initiative came from the British colonial government, which established a Government Elementary School at Opobo Town about January 1905. It was the only Government school in the Division. Although it achieved high academic standards, and was attended by some pupils from the neighbouring Anaang, Ibibio, Andoni and Ogoni areas for Standard V and VI classes, it was closed down in April 1934 as an economic measure and merged with the Niger Delta Pastorate (NDP/Anglican) school, also located in Opobo Town (Shute, 1933). With its closure, Opobo Division had no government school up to Nigeria's Independence in 1960. Moreover, the closure left the NDP school for many years as the only other reputable school in the entire Division (Richards, 1930).

Thus, the brunt of providing elementary education in Opobo Division fell on the missionary bodies. These comprised Mission churches, like the Methodist, NDP, Roman Catholic, Qua Iboe and Salvation Army, and African or independent churches, like Lord Samuel's Spiritual Church, Christ Army Church and the African Church. Most of these lacked qualified teachers, senior supervisory personnel, building infrastructure and funds for their schools. In the event, most of the schools were, for many years, the single building, single teacher, church-cum-school affairs, called hedge or bush schools - too deficient in the number and quality of their teachers, buildings and other facilities to merit Government grant-in-aid (Abasiattai, 1987: 248; Swanston, 1920; Purchas, 1921; Murphy, 1924). A comparatively few schools with improved facilities and higher academic standards were designated assisted schools, and ran the full primary classes up to Standard VI.

In December 1936, there were only seven assisted schools in Opobo Division. Three of them were Methodist; two, NDP; and one each was Roman Catholic and Salvation Army. Five were in Anaang and Ibibio areas, and one each was in Ogoni and Opobo Town (Smith, 1936).

A fundamental characteristic of all the schools was the dearth of female pupils. Most parents did not bother to educate their daughters, considering the expenses on their education a loss to the family, since they would, eventually, marry out. The Tables below illustrate this point for the Methodist schools in the Division in 1927.

TABLE 1

STUDENT POPULATION:

WESLEYAN METHODIST ASSISTED SCHOOLS, OPOBO

DIVISION, 1927

* All African staff

Source: A. W. Hodgetts, 'School Returns', in Annual Reports, Opobo Division, 1925-1928

TABLE 2

 STUDENT POPULATION:

WESLEYAN METHODIST UNASSISTED SCHOOLS,

OPOBO DIVISION, 1927

* All African Staff. Source: As in Table 1

Miss Brazier's House at Ibekwe

Besides the Mission Schools, there were several Native Administration Schools in Opobo Division, established at Ngo (1933)¹, at Yeghe (1937) and at Ikot Obio Itong (1938) by the Andoni, Ogoni and Ibibio NA's respectively (Dewhurst, 1938). Being subject to government control and regular inspection, and funded by both the colonial government and the NA's, the NA schools generally maintained high academic standards, comparable to the government schools (Abasiattai, 1987: 246-247).

Adult Education and Community Development, practised as from late 1940's, yielded remarkable results in the training of women in domestic science. Two Methodist teachers, Miss Brazier and Miss Weeks, connected with this programme, did invaluable work at the Egwanga Methodist Women's Training Centre, for which Miss Brazier was awarded the MBE by the British Government in 1954 (Varvill, 1954).

Regina Coeli College, Essene

By December 1955, there was still no secondary school in Opobo Division in spite of the people's desire for it. Thrice, in July 1933, April 1944 and, as late as May 1950, the Opobo branch of the Ibibio State Union had in vain requested the colonial government for a secondary school (Abasiattai, 1987, 265). In 1942/43 and 1943/44, the Ibibio people collected an extra one shilling voluntary tax per person for the opening of an NA secondary school at Ikot Aba, and an extra two shillings in 1944/45. A total of 2,800 was set aside for the project, but it did not get the DO's support (Harcourt, 1943, 1944).

In 1956, however, the first secondary schools were established in the Division, viz.: the Regina Coeli College, Essene, by the Roman Catholic Mission; and the Secondary Commercial School, Ibekwe, by Sir Udo Udoma, a private proprietor (Udo-Inyang, 1989).

The first Essene school band

Besides the schools mentioned above, opportunities for primary and post primary education existed outside the Division at the Bonny Intermediate School; the Teacher Training College, Uyo;² Hope Waddell Training Institute, and Duke Town and Creek Town Schools, Calabar, to name the ones most commonly attended by the Anaang and the Ibibio youth.

By 1957, therefore, when the Universal Primary Education (U. P. E.) was introduced in Eastern Nigeria, Opobo Division ranked quite low in education among the Divisions in Calabar Province (Allen, 1945). Table 3 shows the Division scoring the lowest percentages of 1.3 and 0.5 in the standard of education and literacy among the Divisions in the Province in 1953.

TABLE 3

OLD CALABAR PROVINCE: AFRICAN POPULATION SEVEN YEARS OF AGE AND

OVER: BY DIVISION:

SHOWING THE NO. OF LITERATES, JUNE, 1953

Source: Nigeria, Department of Statistics, Population Census of the Eastern Region of Nigeria, 1953 (Lagos: The Government Statistician, n.d.), pp 40-41.

Besides, the schools in the Division were very unevenly distributed, with a heavy concentration in the Anaang and Ibibio areas; the Andoni and the Ogoni having the fewest. Much the same was true of literacy. Opobo Town, served by two efficient schools up to 1934 and influenced by early contacts with Europe, had a high literacy rate followed in descending order by the Ibibio, the Anaang, the Andoni and the Ogoni (Cheesman, 1932). As late as December 1932, education in Ogoni land was reported to be at its infancy and a Standard V boy was a rara avis (Cheesman, 1932 B).

Since Independence (1960), more schools have been established in the area formerly included in Opobo Division, and more indigenes of the area have studied in educational institutions in Nigeria and abroad. By September 1987, there were 86 primary and 30 post primary schools in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area, but there was no institution of higher learning, except a Theological college at Ukwa (AKS Handbook, p. 92) Nevertheless, Ikot Abasi still remained relatively educationally under privileged. Table 4 shows Opobo Division scoring the lowest percentages of 12.2 and 9.3 in the number of primary and secondary schools respectively in the Mainland part of South-Eastern State in 1971.

TABLE 4

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN 'MAINLAND'

PART OF FORMER SOUTH EASTERN STATE, SEPTEMBER, 1971

* Newly created Division whose figures are included in the Old Division they formerly belonged.

Source: South-Eastern State of Nigeria (Min. of Economic Development & Reconstruction, First Progress Report on the First State Development Plan, 1970-1974.

(Calabar: The Govt. Printer, n. d., p. 52.)