CHARACTER TRANSFORMING EDUCATION: IMPERATIVE FOR THE REALISATION OF TRANSFORMATION AGENDA IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Various governments in Nigeria have made attempts to transform the nation but none has successfully taken her to the desire destination. Effort of the current government is also commendable. Though worthwhile, character reforming education for its success has being neglected, this implies a vicious circle. The challenges of greed, lack, disorderliness, insecurity, sentiments and corruption through education have not been properly addressed. Hence, this paper investigated how character transforming education can be a necessary tool for the realisation of transformation agenda. A self-developed questionnaire was given to and vetted by 4 senior and more experienced colleagues (lecturers). It was then randomly administered on two hundred formal character reforming educators in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Responses were analysed with analysis of variance statistics; and the two formulated hypotheses were retained. The paper recommends that character reforming or religious courses be made compulsory at the Primary and Secondary school levels to modify pupils’ and students’ character at early stage; government should appointment credible personnel to head strategic positions, organs and parastatals; combat corruption by punishing erring civil and political office holders to serve as deterrent.

Keywords: transformation, character, education

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