Role of community-based organisations in educational development (1)

Education is regarded in today’s world as a human right, which all governments around the world are agreed should be provided by the state. This expression of intent is however not always possible to match with the reality that exists in each country and this is in­deed true for every nation in the world. The result is that there are many children out of school in most countries especially in developing nations. Another consequence is that, there is a backlog of adults that have missed the opportunity of going to school and are thus illiterate. Education is therefore sorely needed for these two classes of people in every society.

Education means different things to different people and it is important to clarify this point early in this discussion. One of the down-to-earth definitions is that given by Wikipedia that says:

‘Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, or research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of others, but may also be autodi­dactic. Any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be con­sidered educational’

The important point is that each society defines its goals because each has knowledge and skills that are peculiar to it which in addition to general and national ones need to be preserved. In our country, we have a National Pol­icy on Education just as we have State Policies on Education. The Omoluabi project for instance, in the State of Ọṣun, is indigenous to the Yoruba and has to be pre­served in addition to whatever makes us Nigerians.

Governments try to carry the burden of educating everyone and in many cases stubbornly cling to that notion as a political tenet, to remain popular. The reality is that there are far too many things like the delivery of healthcare, good transport system, employ­ment etc to provide for the people that the gap noted above widens daily. This is where NGOs (Non- Government Organisations) come in, to bridge the gap especially in their immediate communities.

Where help is needed are in the areas of getting more children to acquire the life-skills required for living quality life and that of af­fording adults who have missed early opportunities, the remedia­tion to pick up and join in produc­tive enterprise of the community and the sacred duty of transmit­ting the mores of the society to future generations.

It is of course one of the pos­sibilities for groups of concerned citizens to assist the efforts of governments by opening and run­ning schools wherever they are needed. This alternative, while noble and possible, is very expen­sive and may not be within the ca­pability of any but the wealthiest groups of people in any society. In any case, as long as those children who ought to be in school are out of it, and with the number rising daily, the cost of establishing and running schools will do much more in terms of societal good if it is diverted to remedial causes some of which have been identi­fied above.

What then can pockets of ordi­nary concerned citizens do to im­prove the condition? Of the three areas identified, that of running normal schools like states do, is not recommended on the grounds that much more can be achieved with what money is available if it is ploughed into the realization of the other two possibilities.

Schooling and the capabilities it confers are necessary for modern living. No one can be happy in the world of today and not feel left behind if he/she is unable to dial a number on his/her phone or is unable to recognize the icons that tell him to switch on or off and go back.

The ability to read, if even it was marginally possible to live without it in the past, is a neces­sity today when you have to trans­act money matters with an ATM (Automated Teller Machine) that is cold and unforgiving if you are unsure, ignorant or just silly. It seizes your card if you exhibit any of these characteristics including fraud, whether it was intentional or not.

There is much work to do there­fore in making adults literate and numerate. The number of those who come under that category is very high and it is decades rather than years that the eradication of illiteracy process is estimated to take. There is no doubt that it is a rich field for do-gooders or se­rious philanthropic groups to ex­plore.

There are many ways to go about this but it is enough to say that setting up a literacy group is all that is needed. What makes this easy is the fact that most of those who know how to read and write can contribute to this scheme and thus reduce the cost if they volunteer to give some of their spare time to the project.

All that is needed additionally is guidance from a competent per­son in the area of Adult Education so that the skills of those who volunteer can be put to optimal use. The time-tabling and hours of study at the Adult Literacy Classes have to be flexible to ac­commodate the convenience of both learners and teachers.

The next issue of skill develop­ment is beneficial to both school dropouts and adults. It is a fact of life that some graduates of our educational institutions at all lev­els lament their decision to have gone to school because they have remained unemployed for so long after completing their courses. It was their expectation, right or wrong, that work opportunities would await them immediately after graduation. This is becom­ing more predominant and some­thing has to be done about it if the dangerous situation is not to be reached where schooling will be rejected by most since it does not seem to aid fulfilling their life ambitions of work, wealth and fame.

NGOs have the unique op­portunity of knowing best what grassroots needs are.

The creation of skill develop­ment centers is a cost-effective way of promoting a better quality of life for the people in a com­munity. Simple but badly needed skills like dress-making, hair dressing, food preparation, good housekeeping, external and inter­nal decoration, events manage­ment, baby care, catering, and many more, can be taught prop­erly to provide employment for the few and needed services for the many.

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