ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT USING COMMUNITY EDUCATION AS A VERITABLE TOOL IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF SOUTHERN IJAW LGA IN BAYELSA STATE)

INTRODUCTION

1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Education being a continuous process from birth to death, this makes it an essential product to be attained by all. The attainment of education is therefore matter urgency for the maintenance of a meaningful life. Community Education provided to citizens will bring about the delivery of other service like achieving sustainable community development. In Nigeria as a whole, community has its own needs, mistakes and different pattern for resolving the problems or meeting needs of its citizen. The benefits of self actualization cannot be attained without giving equal opportunities to all people in form of basic community education. Thus, community education addresses vital and urgent issues of the day in cognizance with the community projects. The ideas of community education is to make known that there can’t be genuine human capacity building be it social, economic or political development without concern for human personal culture, values and the awareness level of people in the community about the events going on around them. Community Education in this research intends to bring about a change in mans attitude, character and lifestyles in other to improve and sustain community development projects to enable a better society. With education, individuals fulfill themselves within the framework of his society. According to Ihejirika (2010) the more education an adult acquires, the more certain it is that he can participate voluntarily or be involved in community developmental activities. Community Development are said to be sustainable when they can serve the present problems and also for the future generations effectively.

Community education is not a new phenomenon of human living (Anyanwu, 2002). For instance, in Nigerian traditional communities individuals had been practicing indigenous community education before the advent of the early missionaries and the colonial masters. However, with the introduction and general acceptance of the Western system of education and culture there was a gradual decline of enthusiasm for erstwhile indigenous community education with corollary problems of unemployment, underemployment, poverty, armed robbery, youth restiveness amongst others in Nigeria. This indicates the inadequacy of formal school system of Western Education alone to meet the socio-economic and cultural needs of the Nigerian society. Formal education having been unable to address most community concerns, policy makers and others came up with the idea of non-formal education, community education and adult education. To this end, Social Development Policy and National Guidelines on Community Development in Nigeria were formulated in 2005 and 1990 respectively. Also, mass literacy, adult and non-formal education with strong emphasis on all forms of functional education such as community education are enshrined in the National Policy on Education (2004) where it is clearly stated that efforts shall be made to relate education to overall community needs. Community needs in this respect go beyond basic social amenities. In realization of the invaluable role and impact of community education locally and globally, the Fifth World Conference on Community Education, was convened in 1987 in Nairobi, Kenya where the proponents and practitioners of community education from 40 countries in all continents affirm their commitment to the goals of community education. However the perennial problems of unemployment, poverty, armed robbery, larceny, harlotry, kidnapping and fraudulence are on the increase. In recognition of the adverse effects of the above vices on the community, this study attempts to x-ray the practice of community education towards achieving sustainable community development projects in Nigeria. This research therefore focuses, on the relevance of community education in sustaining community development projects.

1.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Several schools of thoughts have come to agree that genuine community participation increases the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of development projects in a community. It recognizes the direct involvement of beneficiaries in the planning and at the implementation stages. Yet most development projects in Bayelsa State do not stem from the people’s aspiration and initiation as such, lack their active participation. The absence of the people’s involvement in these development projects is manifested in frequent vandalisation of the projects in the state. This has informed the researchers to critically examine the extent of community participation in the sustainability of community development projects in Bayelsa State of Nigeria, and to identify the possible factors that constrain the sustainability of these community projects in the state.

1.3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The major aim of the study is to examine the community education in achieving sustainable community development projects in Nigeria. Other specific objectives of the study include;

1. To highlight the major challenges towards community education in Nigeria.
2. To assess the level of sustainable community development projects in Bayelsa state.
3. To highlight the effect of community education in sustainable community development projects in Bayelsa state.
4. To examine the relationship between community education and sustainable community development projects.
5. To recommend ways of improving sustainable community development practices through community education in Bayelsa state.

1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the major challenges towards community education in Nigeria?
2. What is the level of sustainable community development projects in Bayelsa state?
3. What is the effect of community education in sustainable community development projects in Bayelsa state?
4. What is the relationship between community education and sustainable community development projects?
5. What are the ways of improving sustainable community development practices through community education in Bayelsa state?

1.5. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

H0: There is no effect of community education in achieving sustainable community development projects.

H1: There is a significant effect of community education in achieving sustainable community development projects.

H0: There is no significant relationship between community education and sustainable community development projects.

H1: There is a significant relationship between community education and sustainable community development projects.

1.6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study would be of immense benefit towards community developments in Bayelsa state and Nigeria in general. The study would highlight the effect of community education towards achieving sustainable community development through execution of long lasting community projects. the study would also benefit grassroots community developers and policy makers as it would make interesting revelations about community education as a tool for achieving their desired result.The study would be of importance to students, researchers and scholars who are interested in developing a further study on the subject matter.

1.7. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study is restricted to achieving sustainable community development using community education as a veritable tool in southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa state.

LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.