Primary education is the foundation upon which all education system is built. The term primary education denotes the kind of formal education meant for children between ages five and six and ages 11 and 12. However, people above these ages can still be found in primary schools for one reason or the other.
Presently in Nigeria, a number of children admitted into primary schools pass through kindergarten and nursery schools which normally admit children below the age of five and its takes six years to complete primary education. Primary school is basic and has served as a terminal education level for majority of people who could not go for higher education owing to certain circumstances.
The first primary school in Nigeria was opened in 1842 by Thomas Birch Freeman of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Badagry, near Lagos. Other churches that blazed the trail of opening primary schools include the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1843, the Church of Scotland Mission (1946), the African Mission of South Baptist Convention of America (1850) and the Roman Catholic Mission (1860).
Apart from the Church of Scotland Mission which started its evangelical and educational work  in Calabar, all the missionary bodies started work in or near Lagos spreading inland into Yoruba land and then other parts of the country. Another early centre of educational and missionary activity was Onitsha, which became the headquarters of CMS and RCM churches in Nigeria. It is worthy of note that these missionaries established schools as the surest method of seeking converts and expanding the Christian religion.
The competition and rivalry among the different Christian sects and their desire to outsmart and beat one another in the struggle to win souls for Christ led to the proliferation of schools manned by half-literate and ill-equipped Nigerians. Government participation and effort in education was based on four precepts namely giving grants to some voluntary agencies engaged in educational pursuit or work, legislating on education, providing schools of its own and trying to control quality through an inspectorate system.
The colonial government paid little or no attention to education until 1877 when it gave an annual grant of £200 to each of the three missions- the CMS, the Wesleyans and the RCM. The first purely Nigerian education ordinance was enacted in 1886, which made provision for the establishment of a Board of Education. The first government primary school was established in Lagos in 1889 for the education of Muslim children while the first Inspector of Schools specifically for the colony and protectorate of Lagos was Dr Henry Carr who was appointed in 1892. Quality control in education was the only work of the Inspectorate Division of the various ministries of education.
From the establishment of British rule in the second half of the 19th century to 1926, separate educational policies were pursued in the Northern and Southern Nigeria.
In 1926, the two education systems-Muslim and Christian religion, were unified under one Director of Education and the 1951 Constitution later made education a regional matter, compelling all the regional governments to embark on a revolutionary expansion of primary educational facilities and enrolment.
The introduction of free Universal Primary Education (UPE) was kick-started in 1955 by the Western region and the Eastern region followed suit in 1957 while the introduction of the free UPE became a national policy as a significant post-war developed by General Yakubu Gowon in 1976.
Primary education is the bedrock of education of any child. The educational attainment of any child is determined by his or her capabilities or performances at the primary level. No child can perform brilliantly at the secondary school level if the capabilities are not up to standard. That is why government came up with the policy that a child must pass through the primary stage and write entrance examination before being admitted into secondary school to be properly disposed or grounded.
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 asserted that everyone has the right to education which at least shall be free in the elementary and primary stages. It further stated that education shall be compulsory, while technical and professional education shall be made generally available. It also stated that higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit, and that parents have a priority right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
The General Assembly on November 29, 1959 further declared the right of a child to special care if handicapped and that the child has the right to free education, the right to learn to be a useful member of the society, the right to develop his abilities and the right to enjoy full opportunity for play and recreation. It may be realised that no education is actually free in the final analysis as somebody must pay for it after all – may be a single individual, the community or the government. There is always an observed snag in the system. Nigerians are corrupt and the success or failure of the free UPE scheme depends more on the morality of our leaders than on the ability of the government to fund it. The problem of funding primary education in Nigeria has been persisted and an age-long one.
A major area that needs serious attention in the primary school and among our children is the increasing rate of indiscipline and the concomitant effects among pupils and youths as well as on the school system. Most disturbing is the indiscriminate use of hard drugs, arms and weapons among children of school age.
The home is rapidly losing its influence on the growth and development of the child. So the education authorities must fashion out ways by which our primary schools can contribute more effectively to the trend. Efficient guidance and counseling units should be established in all the primary and secondary schools to assist children in their growth, physically, socially and educationally.
Some teachers contribute to the question of indiscipline among students due to their misconduct. The future of public primary education rests mostly on the character, caliber and integrity of those training the minds of our future leaders. The Primary Schools Management Boards and the Post-Primary Schools Management Boards have an important role to play in instilling discipline in teachers. There must be quality to match quantity considering the noticeable proliferation of schools. It is the responsibility of teachers to help address the present decline in education standards at all levels and halt the over increasing rate of failure and drop outs among our children. Teachers should re-examine their conscience and see how they can reinvent the falling standard of education now that the government is trying its best to ameliorate their deprivations.
It is now an open policy that the first school leaving certificate is an important criteria by which  people are judged during employment or admission into higher schools. It therefore, behooves primary school teachers to guide our children properly to take their studies more seriously. Some children fail because the teachers fail to do their jobs right.