Education & Developmental Initiatives: Examining the Role of Adult Education in Rural Community Development in Nigeria (Published)
Rural community development is a critical driving force in a nation’s advancement. The effort is to address and successfully support the specific needs and opportunities of the communities and their inhabitants. As a result, any nation that has weak or undeveloped rural communities finds it extremely difficult to reach the height of its developmental strides. In the same manner, the role of education in modern times cannot be quickly exhausted in a hurry for its contributions to the development of individuals and its impact on rural community development. As a result, this paper attempts to identify and conceptualize the following terms – “Community”, “Education”, “Development”, “Community development”, “formal education”, “Informal education”, “Non-formal education”, “Adult education”, and “Rural area”. It also attempts to understand the functions of a community, and how individuals in a rural community could contribute meaningfully to the development of their rural communities. Also discussed the purpose or the importance of community development in Nigeria. The paper further examined the purpose/benefits of adult education in community development, and the challenges or obstacles hindering the effective implementation of rural community development initiatives. However, the authors finally made suggestions for combating the effective implementation of rural community development programmes and projects in Nigeria.
Citation: Ifeoma Felicia Uzoagu and Abraham Oriji (2022) Education & Developmental Initiatives: Examining the Role of Adult Education in Rural Community Development in Nigeria, European Journal of Training and Development Studies, Vol.9 No.2, pp.11-26
Keywords: Adult Education, Community, Community development, Education, Formal, informal and non-formal education
The Role of Adult Education in Achieving Sustainable Community Development in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated the role of adult education in achieving sustainable community development in Akamkpa local government area of Cross River State. Two research questions were formulated for the study. The design for this study was descriptive survey. The population of the study was four hundred and two (402) participants of adult education programme for sustainable community development in the study area, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to draw the sample size of 201 respondents. Researchers developed questionnaire titled: Role of Adult Education Sustainable Community Development Questionnaire (RAESCDQ). The instrument for data collection was a 10 items questionnaire which was validated by research experts and tested with a reliability estimate of 0.87 using Cronbach alpha statistics. The data collected were analysed using frequency and percentages. The findings which emerged from the study revealed that lack of curriculum, content of adult education, research facilities, facilitators and insufficient budgeting allocation in Akamkpa local government area. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that adult education study centres should be built and well equipped with learning facilities to attract learners and also non-governmental organizations should support government in funding, providing, learning and infrastructural needs that will make adult education programmes more effective for sustainable community development.
Keywords: Adult Education, Community development, Sustainable