Education is inevitable tool for sustainable development and economic development is the desire of all nations of the world but how to attain a sustainable development remains a challenge to many nations. This paper examined free education and its adaption for sustainable national development in Nigeria. Education is a social service, which is meant to eradicate illiteracy, ensures comfortable living of the citizens as well as the development of the country, it should be provided free for all. In the course of this paper, information and data were gathered from literature and forty two (42) principals spread across forty two secondary schools in the four (4) Local Government Area of Umuahia Education Zone to describe the Concept and support of the arguments raised. The data for the study were collected using an instrument titled “Assessing Free Education for Sustainable Development Questionnaire (AFESDQ). The instrument was validated by three (3) research experts and reliability established using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient with reliability 0.83. Data obtained were analyzed using mean for the research questions while hypothesis formulated was tested at 0.5 level of significance. The relationship between free education and sustainable development were established, the extent of enhancement and factors that facilitate free education were also examined with suggestions including among others, the need to ensure equity and egalitarianism, combat the looming poverty, low manpower/ literacy level and provision of scholarships, bursaries to students and adequate funding from government.
Keywords: Free Education, National Development, Nigeria, Public Secondary Schools
