COMMUNITY EDUCATION NEEDS OF COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATIONS LEADERS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE                                                                     i

CERTIFICATION                                                               ii

APPROVAL PAGE                                                             iii

DEDICATION                                                                   iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS                                                  v

TABLE OF CONTENTS                                                     vi

LIST OF TABLES                                                              viii

LIST OF APPENDICES                                                     ix

ABSTRACT                                                                       x

 

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION                                   1

Background to the Study                                                 1

Statement of the Problem                                                11

Purpose of the Study                                                               12

Significance of the Study                                                 13

Research Questions                                                         14

Hypotheses                                                                      14

Scope of the Study                                                           15

 

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE                  16

1. Conceptual Framework 16

• Community 16
• Community education 20
• Educational needs of community leaders 23
• Community leadership 32
• Community based organizations 35

 

1. Theoretical Framework 38

• Maslow’s theory of needs 38
• Functionalist theory 40
• Contingency theory of leadership 43
• Human capital theory 45
• Cultural theory 47

1. Review of related empirical studies 49
2. Summary of Reviewed literature 53

 

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD                     56

Design of the Study                                                         56

Area of the Study                                                             56

Population of the Study                                                   57

Sample and Sampling Technique                                    57

Instrument for Data Collection                                        58

Validation of the Instrument                                            59

Reliability of the Instrument                                            59

Method of Data Collection                                                       60

Method of Data Analysis                                                  60

 

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS                                           62

Summary and Findings                                                   70

 

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS,

                         AND CONCLUSION                         72

Discussion of Findings                                                    72

Implications of the study for adult education and

Community development                                                 76

Conclusion                                                                      79

Recommendations                                                           79

Suggestions for further studies                                                81

 

REFERENCES                                                                 82

APPENDICES                                                                  91

LIST OF TABLES

 

1. Population distribution of autonomous community based

organization in the twenty one local government

areas of Anambra State                                                    96

2. Distribution of the randomly sampled local

government areas and autonomous community

based organizations with their executives.                               97

3. Mean of the basic education needs of the respondents. 62
4. Mean of the social education needs of the respondents 63
5. Mean of the political education needs of the respondents 64
6. Mean of the economic education needs of the respondents 65
7. Mean of the cultural education needs of the respondents 66
8. T-test analysis of mean scores of literate and non-literate respondents on the basic education needs 67
9. T-test analysis of mean scores of the married and single respondents on the social education needs. 68
10. T-test analysis of mean scores of the urban based and rural based respondents on the political education needs. 69

 

LIST OF APPENDICES

 

1. Appendix A: Request to complete a questionnaire 91
2. Appendix B: Population of the study 96
3. Appendix C: Sample and sampling technique 97
4. Appendix D: Reliability of the Instrument 98
5. Appendix E: t-test analysis of hypothesis one, two,

& three                                                             100

 

6 Appendix F: Validated  instrument       s                                      105

Abstract

The central focus of this study was to ascertain the community education needs of community based organizations leaders in Anambra State of Nigeria. To guide this study, five research questions were posed and three null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population for the study comprised 1,701 executive members of the 189 registered  community based organizations in the 21 local government areas that make up the three senatorial zones of Anambra State. The sample consisted of 1071 executive members of community based organizations selected through stratified random sampling. The internal consistency reliability coefficient obtained for each of the clusters I-V were 0.89, 0.88, 0.87, 0.86 and 0.92 respectively while the overall reliability coefficient was 0.88. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Mean was used to analyze the research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. Among the major findings of the study were that  the respondents agreed that they need basic, social, political, economic, and cultural education to improve or further lead as required, there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of the literate and non-literate; respondents on the basic education needs there was significant difference in the mean ratings of married and single respondents on social education needs; and there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of the urban based and rural based respondents on political education needs. It was recommended that the Agency for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education in Anambra State should mount campaign in the rural communities on the need for community education programmes, that community education centres should be established in the rural areas and qualified adult educators employed to facilitate the programmes, policy makers and other administrators in mass literacy, adult and non-formal education should reflect the needs of the community in policy formulation.

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Background to the Study

 

Within the community framework, there is need for people to be educated. It is vital because without it, people may not function effectively. Community education is one form of education that will bring about positive change among the people in the community. Ezumah (2004) sees community education as a process aimed at raising consciousness, spreading understanding, and providing the necessary skills, including the human and material resources for the social, economic, political and cultural development. Findsen (2006) defined community education as an organized learning activity that groups or individuals undertake for the personal, community, cultural or economic development. It touches all other areas of learning but its primary focus is the adult as learner and the community as the context. Akande (2007) sees community education as the type of education needed to engender self-confidence, self-respect, and personal independence as well as to safeguard human rights and achieve social equality.

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Contextually, community education is the education that promotes the integrated involvement of community members in the effort to bring about desirable social change.  It is education for peoples empowerment to take control over their own lives. In other words, it is an educational process whereby people, collectively learn to help themselves and improve their lives. It is the need for improving the quality of life in the community that brought about the activities of community education.

According to Anyanwu (2002), community education is not a new phenomenon of human living. For example, in Nigeria traditional communities, people had been practising indigenous community education before the advent of the early missionaries and the colonial administration. The traditional apprenticeship programmes were plausible forms of community education. Such programmes were run in the areas of health, agriculture, arts and crafts and constituted a recognized way of inducing enlightenment. In the area of health, community education tends to emphasize better sanitation and water supply, proper hygiene and housing, and improved infant and maternal welfare. In the field of agriculture, community education was in the area of sensitizing people on the methods of farming to improve their productivity, better care of livestocks. Anyanwu further stated that with the introduction and general acceptance of the Western system of education and culture, there was a gradual decline in enthusiasm for erstwhile indigenous community education with corollary problems of illiteracy, unemployment, underdevelopment, poverty, armed robbery, kidnapping, and youth restiveness 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 alone, policy makers came up with the idea of non-formal education. Non-formal education according to Ngwu (2003:41) can be defined as:

any planned and consciously organized general education and /or training activity outside the formal school in a particular society for illiterates, school leavers, dropouts or other adults, as individuals or in groups, for the purpose of raising their consciousness of their social situation and their standard of living, improving their individual or collective efficiency in their jobs or preparing them for self-employment, wage employment or further training within the existing education/training system.

 

Non-formal education is focusing on teaching people to improve their basic level of subsistence, as well as there standards of nutrition and general health, participate in determining the nature and content of programmes of community education, and acquire knowledge and skills which can immediately be put into practice to solve community problems. In these ways, non-formal education becomes an important tool for community education to provide social change for better living in the community. Non-formal education provides the viable educational alternatives that will enable different categories of completers to further their education.

In 2004, the Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education came up with strong emphasis on all forms of functional education such as community education that was enshrined in the National Policy on Education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004). In the document, it was clearly stated that efforts shall be made to relate education to overall community needs. To realize this objective 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 affirmed their commitment to the goal of community education: to raise the consciousness and enhance the initiative of people in solving their problems in the spirit of self-reliance and self determination (Akande, 2007).

Ezumah (2004) stated that the non-formal nature of community education operational strategies determines its objectives. He went on to state that the primary objective of non-formal community education is to return education to the people in the community. Community Based Organization (CBO) leaders, therefore, need this type of education (community education). This is the type of education that will provide them with certain types of knowledge, skills, understanding, courage, perceptivity, and foresight in community leadership. The National Libraries of Medicine (2007) defined community based organizations as public or private non-profit organizations that are representatives of a community or a significant segment of a community, and are engaged in meeting human, educational, environmental, or public safety community need. Thus, community based organizations refer to all the organizations based in the community and set by the community for the purposes of enhancing the well-being of the community members. Each community based organization has its own leaders and the essence of the leadership is to direct activities and have enormous responsibility to direct what they are doing within CBOs.

Abiona (2009) sees community leaders as volunteers and agents of change that motivate and mobilize their people to improve their communities. They are members of their community who are familiar with the culture, social organization, structure, and values of their community. In other words, community leaders are the leaders of different community based organizations set-up by the community who are often formed to improve the standard of living in their community. Because community leaders occupy this position, they need to be educated within the context of the community. In realization of this, successive Nigerian governments have intensified efforts in initiating national development programmes to promote community education. Such programmes include: Mass Mobilization, Social Justice, and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), Family Support Programme (FSP), Environmental Sanitation, population education, mass literacy campaign, political education, among others. These programmes were initiated to promote the life and meet learning needs of the people, community leaders inclusive. This is in line with the views of Alam (2004) who noted that one of the goals of Dakar Education for All (EFA) framework of action was ensuring equitable access to education to meet the learning needs of all.

Despite the efforts of the government in initiating community education programmes in the country, the results of the interview and observations made by the researcher show that community based organizations leaders in Anambra state have little or no idea of community education programmes to improve their lots. It is not clear if these community education programmes have been contributory in improving their expected roles. This is because, they have not been able to fill their position properly and hence, do not perform as desired in their area of jurisdictions. This is evidenced from their poor leadership and accountability, disputes, ignorance of political rights, poor attitude to environmental sanitation, among others. For example, in Anambra State, community leaders shy away from political activities because of the activities of rigging, thuggery, and assassination that militate against their political rights and duties. This agrees with the views of Igbafe and Offiong (2007) that political assassination and other vices have become evils that work the streets of Nigeria not only unmolested, but aided and abated. This, they noted, is due to ineffectiveness and inefficiency of national security outfits, particularly the police that have failed to live up to its duties by apprehending the culprits and their collaborators.

Again, environmental sanitation exercise observed every last Saturday of the month now records very few community members’ participation due to lack of mobilization from the leaders. This is in line with Ejikeme (2012) who opined that until recently when Anambra State Waste Management Agency (ASWAMA), which derived from the defunct Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency (ANSEPA) was formed, the issue of waste management in Anambra State was a big challenge. The peoples’ attitude to environmental sanitation was very poor. Indiscriminate dumping of refuse was rule rather than exception. The state capital, Awka, was the most vulnerable in this undisciplined life style. Bins overflowed with dirt as flood channels were willfully blocked by privileged few in the society for purpose of reclaiming the land. For example, Iyiagu flood channel was blocked and built upon regardless of the danger it posed to life and properties.

In the same area, the leaders rather struggle for monthly allowance from the state government for community development activities including community education programmes and shy away from their expected roles of helping the community members to develop capacity to deal with their own problems through collective actions, enhanced self-chosen changes and development by community members. This includes developing people’s capacity to learn the skills of democracy that will help move the community to the most desirable levels of conditions. This agrees with the views of Anyanwu (2002) who said that:

Community leaders are more interested in power sharing and the creation of positions than in the solution of community problems. Hence, with the lack of intelligent and imaginative of local leadership, the administration of a disorganized community can be frustrated by low morale, apathy, and outright neglect.

 

Morestill, some of the leaders divert community funds into their pocket due to their self aggrandizement. This is in line with Abiona (2009) who noted that the limited funds contributed by members of the communities may be embezzled by community leaders and other. This brings mistrust and kills the interest of the community members who are willing to participate in community development. The author further noted that the political class makes the matter worse by displaying influence after embezzling public funds.

The non-performance of these community leaders of their expected roles could be attributed to some gaps that need to be filled through community education programmes. The gap will be considered as the educational needs of these community based organizations leaders. Knowles (1970) described educational need as something that a person has to learn for his own good, for the good of an organization, or for the good of the society. It can be regarded as the gap that exists between a person’s present level of competencies and a higher level which is required for effective performance as defined by the individuals, his organization or his society. As a problem-centered activity, community education becomes a tool that will build the capacity of community leaders to satisfy the imbalance or lack of adjustment between the present condition in the life of the community and a new set of condition that will be more desirable.

In identifying those gaps, they could be basic education needs, social education needs, political education needs, economic education needs, and cultural education needs. These are important because, they will equip the individuals, including the community leaders with the desired knowledge and skills that will make them function effectively in their communities. Conceptually, basic education refers to all those programmes with fundamental education, as well as those programmes with alternative curricular, including areas such as basic health, nutrition, family planning, literacy, agriculture, and other vocational skills (Lynette & Babara, 2010). The community leaders need basic education because it is very important for human living. Acquisition of basic education will help community leaders have a focus on other areas of needs in the community. It is only when they achieve their basic education needs that other sets of needs come up in the hierarchy of needs. In addition to basic education, another education need that could be important to community leaders is social education. Social education can be seen as education for sociality, education through social life, education as learning in society, and education for social relationships (Smith, 2002). Thus, it is the education that equips community leaders with knowledge and skills of establishing human relationship, love, peace and harmony, communication, improved family life, among others. Knowledge of social education will make community leaders gain access to full emotional, social, and intellectual development in relations to self, social institutions, and social issues.

Moreso, another education need that could be very important to community leaders to function effectively in their communities is political education. Political education is an activity aimed at achieving the largest numbers of citizens, who understand political process, independently and critically shape their own opinions and are prepared for public activity (European Youth for Media Network Association, 2012). Political education will help to raise the civic consciousness and increasing participation of community leaders in the community affairs and the mainstream political process. Acquisition of political education will make them exercise their franchise, know state ideology, strengthen their leadership structure, and have sound criticisms on state issues. In the same vein, such other need could be economic education. Economic education is the education provided to assist a rational man in organizing his different thoughts whenever he is faced with day-to-day economic issues and problems (Ibukunolu, 2010). Thus, economic education is the education that prepares one to become productive member of the workforce, prudent saver, investor, and wise decision maker on his available resources. There is, therefore, the need for community based organizations leaders to acquire economic education to enable them identify their available resources in the community and make wise decision on the usage and reservation for the rainy days. It will equally equip them with knowledge and skills of dealing with their day-to-day economic issues and problems as they arise in their own areas of authority.

Finally, one other education need that could be vital for the performance of community based organization leaders in their communities is cultural education. Cultural education refers to education that enables the transmission of peoples’ cultural heritage from one generation to another. It equips individuals with a wide variety of high quality cultural experiences that make them to function effectively in their communities. There is the need for community leaders to have in their finger tips, the values, norms, and traditions of their communities through cultural education. This will enable them to transmit the knowledge to new generation and for promotion of cultural development.

Community has been defined as a group of people living in a geographical area and are bound with common interest. This implies that in every community, the perception of the people is very important since there are various categories of people in the community, for example, married and single, educated and non-educated. It is very vital that the opinions of these categories of people should be collected to determine how related or diversed these opinions are in this study. Also community development is all about improving the well being of people in both rural and urban communities. This therefore, implies that, the importance of rural and urban aspects of the communities necessitates that the opinions from both rural a urban leaders are necessary in this study.

Based on the foregoing, that the community based organization leaders do not function effectively as required, it is the intention of the researcher to identify the needs of the community based organizations leaders to enable them function effectively in their communities.

 

Statement of the Problem

The non-performance of the community based organizations leaders has led to slow pace at which different communities in Anambra State are developing. The decline in their roles is more pervasive in rural communities than their urban counterparts. This can be evidenced by the high rate of illiteracy, poor leadership, embezzlement of public funds, disputes, and ignorance of community education programmes such as health, economic, political and environmental programmes. The truth remains that inspite of the numerous community education programmes that have been introduced by the government, the rural dwellers, including community leaders have not availed themselves of these educational opportunities to improve their lots. Could it be that the community education programmes did not receive adequate publicity or could it be that there were some educational deficiencies that deprived them of access to information about community education programmes?

Moreover, the irony is that, it is not even certain that community leaders know their basic education needs, social education needs, political education needs, economic education needs, and cultural education needs. In fact, it is not clear if at all any community education programmes targeted at the rural populace have been contributory in improving the roles of community leaders in the area despite the rapid increase in their expected roles.

Therefore, since the community based organizations leaders do not perform their roles as expected in their areas of jurisdiction, there is need to identify their community education needs to enable them develop their leadership potentials and become more effective in their areas of authority. It is, therefore, the problem of this study to identify the community education needs of the community based organizations leaders.

 

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study was to ascertain the community education needs of community based organizations leaders in Anambra State. Specifically, the study sought to find out:

1. The extent to which community based organizations leaders need basic education.
2. The extent to which community based organizations leaders need social education.
3. The extent to which community based organizations leaders need political education.
4. The extent to which community based organizations leaders need economic education.
5. The extent to which community based organizations leaders need cultural education.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will be of great importance not only to the community leaders who are the pillars in community, particularly in this dynamic world of 21^st century but also to adult educators and community development officers, policy makers and state government.

Firstly, the implementation of the findings will enable community leaders to identify the needs and problems of the community and means of satisfying them. It is only when they know what their needs are that they know how to tackle them. The findings will equally give the leaders clue on how to influence and direct the people  in order to achieve communal goals be it social, political, economic, and otherwise.

Secondly, the findings of the study will serve as a guide for adult educators and community development officers on what programmes to be developed for community leaders. It will give them insight on the desired roles of the leaders and how to develop programme to reflect such roles that will bring about positive changes in the community.

Thirdly, the findings of the study will as well serve as a guide for policy makers in formulating policies that will guide the selection of leaders in different communities. The findings will also give the policy makers idea on how to reflect the expected roles of community leaders in their policies. This is to streamline the leadership pattern of the leaders in different communities.

Finally, the findings and recommendations of the study will serve as a reference point through which the state and local governments can address some developmental programme issues of rural communities. That is, it will serve as a date bank that can be used as guide by the government in dealing with developmental issues.

 

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study.

1. To what extent do community based organizations leaders need basic education?
2. To what extent do community based organizations leaders need social education?
3. To what extent do community based organizations leaders need political education?
4. To what extent do community based organizations leaders need economic education?
5. To what extent do community based organizations leaders need cultural education?

 

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated for the study and tested at P < 0.05 level of significance.

H0₁: There is no significant difference between the mean        scores of the literate and non-literate community based organizations leaders on the basic education needs.

H0₂: There is no significant difference between the mean        scores of the married and single community based organizations leaders on the         social education needs.

H0₃: There is no significant difference between the mean        scores of urban based and rural based community based organizations leaders on the political education needs.

 

 

Scope of the Study

The scope of the study was limited to determine the community education needs of community based organizations leaders in Anambra State. These community education needs include: basic education needs, social education needs, political education needs, economic education needs, and cultural education needs. The study was also limited to those community based organizations set up by the community

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