Influence of education on practice of contemporary wood carving in Awka town, Anambra state

Abstract

Informal and formal education systems have played very important role in the Educational development of Africa. Even formal educational system which characterized the present systemof education, did not only develop from non – formal education but has consistently shown influence of non – formal education. It is regrettable that most scholars show little interest on the relevance of non-formal education in formal educational system, hence there is a dearth of scholarly Literature on the subject. In view of this problem this study examined the influence of the education systemon the Awka wood carving industry. The study employed a survey design, while a descriptive method was used in data analysis. Sources of data include both primary and secondary sources. The primary sources are mainly Oral, while secondary sources are written materials, both published and unpublis hed. The result of the study showed that Western education has influence on wood carving training in Awka. It therefore recommends that traditional wood carving methods should be introduced to the curriculum for teaching academic art in Nigeria to acquaint students with knowledge of their indigenous arts and culture and to draw inspirations from them for modern art productions.