Inculcation and practice of values are indispensable for social coherence and development in any human society. As guiding principles for accepted behavior in the society, values are highly informed and influenced by cultural and social contexts. Virtually every nation counts on education as a veritable instrument for the inculcation of values. Every nation has its own set of values which it considers to be catalytic to its development if well inculcated through education. Nigeria, as a nation, has such values. However, it is doubtful, based on the apparent depravity and perversion prevalent in the country, if the Nigerian education is effectively carrying out this task of inculcation of values in the students. This paper, therefore, deemed it necessary to carry out a philosophical appraisal in this regard, using the method of conceptual and critical analysis. The outcome of the appraisal showed that although the outlined values in the National Policy on Education are noble, the Nigerian education system has not been effective in inculcating those values, due to a number of reasons, such as the absence of value clarification, lack of strong emphasis on the practice of values, neglect of some core Nigerian traditional values and teachers’ ill preparedness for the responsibility of inculcating values. Based on this, the paper recommended, among others, that efforts should be made at value clarification, modification of the policy statement so as to strongly emphasize practical aspects as well as our core traditional values, and that adequate attention be given to in-depth knowledge of values in the training and retraining of teachers of all cadres.