NN37, May 2006
Special Theme on Education and Training out of Poverty? A Status Report
MAKING EDUCATION SERVICES WORK FOR RURAL POPULATIONS
By Modupe A. Adelabu. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife
The Education For All (EFA) framework for sub-Saharan Africa identifies the need to consider accelerated and non-formal alternative (complementary) approaches for reaching underserved children particularly in remote and deprived environments. The bricks and mortar systems of education appear not to have given desired results in terms of individual achievements and skill development. Schooling in rural areas often has little to offer and has produced unemployable and unemployed citizens without any marketable skills. It was noted among other things that the curricula and textbooks in primary and secondary schools are often urban-based, irrelevant to the needs of rural people and seldom focus on crucial skills for life whereas one of the six EFA goals agreed upon at Dakar in year 2000 stipulates that learning needs of all young people and adults are to be met through equitable access to appropriate learning life skill programs.Nigeria?s faith in education has rested in the power of education as a means of improving man?s lot. This faith is expressed and testified in the belief that through education it is possible to change one?s destiny and create for a new and better life.
This study is predicated on the fact that learning usually occurs in the context of varying individual and social experiences, and that the school is only one institution among many where learning occurs. Formal schooling no longer enjoys the monopoly of educating individuals, especially in rural areas, because lifelong learning is beyond basic schools, since a great percentage of those who attended formal schools alone do not only have difficulty in reading and writing but they also have no skills to make them self-sustainable. This implies a need to search for a more relevant and sustainable link between out of school experiences on the one hand, and organized learning experiences on the other. Otherwise, a large number of learners in rural communities are in danger of being subjected to curricula that are irrelevant, and hence incapable of nurturing their individual potentials as well as meeting their basic needs and empowering them to resist the denial and violation of their human rights. Consequent upon these, this study sets out to develop a rural-based curriculum that will draw on existing resources and infrastructure with individual and group capacities and needs. Specifically, the study hopes to broaden the scope of the goals of secondary education to consolidate and reinforce vocational and life skills through innovation pedagogy.
The study adopts a participatory approach to explore these issues. This focuses on indigenous skills to assess how this can be built upon to develop a rural-based curriculum. The qualitative study is complemented by a questionnaire to determine the needs of the community, together with occupational aspirations of students. This study is carried out in a cluster of five rural communities in Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State Nigeria. Household heads, teachers, students and policy makers were targeted for the study. The study investigated how learners in rural communities of Nigeria can use an expanded curriculum that includes out-of-school experiences and vocations thereby making the curriculum relevant to their individual potentials as well as meeting their basic needs.
In conclusion we ask that efforts be made by education policy makers to broaden the scope of the goals of secondary education in order to consolidate and reinforce vocational education