Attrition rates were high for both males and females in 1990. Primary one to primary two attrition rates were 18.0% and 17.6% for boy and girls respectively; primary two to primary three were 7.6% for boys and 6.2% for girls and primary five to six, were 12.3% for boys and 11,2% for girls. There was no consistency in the attrition rates of boys and girls.

Attrition rates for 1990 and 1994 were high when compared with those of 1991, 1992 and 1993. From the above the teachers factors in attrition rate can be deduced. The year 1990 and 1994 were marked by nation wide teachers’ strikes as a result of non payment of salaries.

From 1991-1993 when the National Primary Education Commission was established and they took over the payment of primary teachers’ salaries, incidence of primary school teachers strikes were low. When teachers returned to the class in 1991, most of the pupils who withdrew from school in 1990 came back to school. Thus attrition rate was negative, during this period.

Also attrition rate from primary one to primary two were generally high from 1990 to 1995, There was mass mobilization and advocacy at the beginning of each year as a result of which enrolment into primary one is high but the children interests were not sustained, so some of them dropped out.

There was also a high attrition rate from primary 5 to primary 6. The high percentage may be due to the fact that some pupils especially those in private schools were accelerated or given double promotion to enable them take entrance examination for admission to Junior Secondary School. Those who pass enter the college, while they were recorded as dropouts from the primary school system.

This practice which is commonly in use is not in conformity with the National Policy on Education. Primary education, according to the National Policy on Education is a six years course. The government has set up a machinery to regulate such unwholesome practices.

Table 20: PRIMARY SIX COMPLETION RATE (NATIONAL)

Fig. F

In 1984/85 school year the number of pupils enrolled in primary one was 2,730,281. After six years, that is, by 1990 the number that completed primary six was 1,606,299. This figure is 59.8% of the pupils who were enrolled in 1990. The completion rate for 1990 is therefore 58.8%. The assumption is that the incidence of repetition were not significant. By implication 41.2% did not complete primary six in 1990 and therefore that proportion must have dropped out. Between boys and girls there was slight imbalance in completion rates in favour of the boys in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994. The gender gaps were in favour of the girls in 1993, 1995 and 1996. The gender gaps were 2.9%, 1.03% and 1.1% respectively. On the whole, boys and girls seem to have equal chances of completing primary six except for some annual variations.

8. LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT

7.2.8.1 The Monitoring of Learning Achievement (MLA) project, was conceived in 1994 following the nation-wide Situation and Policy Analysis Survey of the State of Basic Education in Nigeria. The study revealed that the existing monitoring indicators did not include valid measures of the quality of learning outcome. This observation reinforced the Jomtien (1990), recommendation for developing nations to strengthen national capacities and evolve more effective systems for monitoring performance at the basic education level. Subsequently, the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with UNICEF sought UNESCO assistance as technical adviser for the implementation of the MLA project. Nigeria thus became one of the second group of developing countries to implement MLA study project.

The study in country as vast as Nigeria with its then thirty one `States' structure, poised several challenges. On the other hand, it also provided varied learning experiences for the implementators. The initial apprehensions were easily overcome through constitution of a National Co-ordinating Committee with experts in different requisite skills.

1. Learning Achievement

A fundamental philosophy of Nigerian education is the inculcation of self-sufficiency. The national curriculum specifies the knowledge and skills, which the learner at any particular stage must acquire towards becoming self-sufficient. Learning achievement is defined in this study as how much of what pupils at a specific level of schooling have learned compared with what they are expected to have learned towards meeting their basic learning needs. It is a measure of the pupils’ level of attainment with reference to curricular expectation for that level and it is indicative of how far schooling has been effective in helping pupils meet their basic learning needs. The technique of quality control derives from the premise that the pupils’ level of performance on tests derived from curricular expectancies are reliable indices of the quality of the pupils’ learning which in turn are valid indicators of the extent of efficiency of a school system. It is a system, rather than an individual pupil’s specific approach to evaluating performance.

2. Project Aims and Objectives

The Aim of the project is to develop empirical instruments, which would be used in monitoring the efficiency of performance of the Primary school system. These instruments were developed in three domains of knowledge Literacy (English language), Numeracy (Mathematics) and Life skills (Social Studies, Health Education, Primary Science, Home Economics, etc). The eventual goal is to provide a valid and more reliable basis for informed policy decision about curriculum matters at this level.

This study which may be considered as the first stage in the implementation of the monitoring project is presently limited specifically to Primary IV.

The immediate focus is therefore to assess what level of skill in terms of concepts, problem solving and reasoning abilities, comprehension, pupils in Primary IV of the formal primary schools actually acquired, compared to what they are expected to know with regard to curricular expectation at that level, in three knowledge domains; literacy (English language), numeric (Mathematics) and life skills (Social studies, Science, Health Education etc).

1. Identify competencies within specific knowledge domains; Literacy, Numeracy and Life Skills which a child who has been exposed to four years of primary schooling (PRIMARY IV) should have acquired within the dictates of curricular demands;
2. Develop simple, easily administrable instruments for monitoring the learning achievement of pupils in these domains:
3. Measure the level of pupils’ learning acquisition on the achievement tests and analyze the pattern of performance at national and state levels by sector (urban/sector) type of school (public/private) and gender (boys/girls).
4. Identify variables relating to pupils family background, teachers and school that can impact on pupils’ learning achievement and the nature of this impact;
5. Examine the implications of the findings for policy making, curriculum development, and for teaching and learning and make recommendations for improvement, and
6. Use the execution of the project as an avenue for building national capacity for the implementation of a programme of monitoring of the performance of the educational system.

2. Finding From Achievement Tests

The findings are reported first as general national results and then as results of sub-groups from the national sample. These results are summarized as follows:

The statistics generated on analysis of mean percent scores by the entire sampled population on the literacy, numeracy and life skills tests are represented on table 12