RESTRUCTURING NIGERIA’S THEORY-BASED TERTIARY EDUCATION: AN APPRAISAL OF JOHN DEWEY’S PRAGMATIC PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

In 2022 World University Ranking, University of Ibadan ranked 1172nd and number one tertiary institution in Nigeria with an overall score of 69.3 points. Similarly, in 2021, among top 200 best universities in Africa, University of Lagos was ranked 42nd followed by University of Nigeria Nsukka at 43rd position. These records are not encouraging as they are consolidated in the quality of Nigerian university graduates. As a problem, this study roots the cause of the international performance on theorybased learning style of Nigeria tertiary education, modelled in Platonic credo, to know Good is to do Good. However, Socratic dialectical education projected conditions of non-connection between what one knows and what one does. Hence, ‘education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel’. Using hermeneutics as methodology in thematic content analysis, the study aims at critically examining the challenges of Nigeria’s tertiary theory-based learning through the pragmatic lens of John Dewey’s model of education. The objectives involve establishing the limitedness of theory-based learning, identifying aspects of Dewey’s pragmatism needed in restructuring Nigeria’s tertiary education system and establishing mechanics for private sector collaboration towards practical learning. Feasible private-public partnership in tertiary education is the significant recommendation made by the study. Based on Dewey's educational progressivism, the study concludes that institutionalizing practice-centered learning in Nigeria’s tertiary education remains tenable means in producing qualified and employable graduates.

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