REAWAKENING THE PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF NIGERIAN EDUCATION TOWARDS CREATIVITY AND SELF-RELIANCE

Abstract

The era in Nigeria when citizens continually depend on the government and its institutions for their survival is believed to have gone because it appears to be that the present day Nigerian governments care less about the well-being of the citizens. Hence, her citizens should rise to self-help by taking active steps to become creative, economically viable and socio-politically relevant. This paper is therefore a call for the reawaking of the philosophy and practice of Nigerian education towards creativity and self-reliance. The paper reaffirmed the importance of education in the development of human resources that are needed for national development. It was clearly noted also that Nigeria has as one of its goals, “the building of a self-reliant nation†made up of creative individuals. However, the writer expressed dissatisfaction on the inability of the education sector of Nigeria at all levels to provide workable modalities that will facilitate the attainment of this lofty goal. Owing to the fact that the world is now highly globalized, the writer submitted that the Nigerian nation is left with no option than to reawaken the philosophy and practice of her education towards ensuring creativity and self-reliance. To do so, the writer suggested among other steps that the Government should with all sincerity and seriousness implement in totality, all educational policies that would promote the development of skills and creative abilities of her citizens aiming at producing self-reliant citizens.