Educating the world is like lighting up the world and blacking out the dangers of ignorance. The role of adults education in community development as part of the vision of increasing the level of universal literacy is also one of those beneficial and advantageous decisions on making the world a better place in terms of development and growth.
Speaking of education, the role of educating the citizens of the world including the elderly ones is huge and cannot be overplayed. This is because education is the transmission of knowledge, skills, and character traits.
There are many debates about its precise definition, for example, about which aims it tries to achieve. A further issue is whether part of the meaning of education is that the change in the student is an improvement.
Education socializes children into society by teaching cultural values and norms. It equips them with the skills needed to become productive members of society. This way, it stimulates economic growth and raises awareness of local and global problems. Organized institutions affect many aspects of education.
Community needs are on the increase with little attention been received from the government. Members of any community need to strategize so that development will reach them without delay. Many programmes have been initiated for community development but these programmes end up not seeing the light of day.
Education too has been the only avenue for community development, but many after obtaining their certificates will opt out to work outside their communities and in some instances never return.
Education is the commonest avenue for giving a community better development using the members of the community – the adult. Adult Education has been in place to reach out to adult members but the need to re-engineer this form of education for better usage in the community is paramount.
Education is a weapon of development of the people in a society. It helps to promote understanding and cooperation among a group of people for the present and the future. It helps to create peace through understanding and respect for individual differences.
In the community, adult education is the most needed education for the fact that it helps communities to be mobilized for contributing towards their own development for their survival and their future generation.
The importance of the role of adults education in community development cannot be overemphasized because of the many effective functions that it plays in the scheme of nation-building. Let us then look at some of the effective roles:
Change in Behavior of the Individuals
Adult education is an instrument for change. It helps to modify the behavior of individuals in the community in many ways. It helps to improve the critical thinking quality of the individuals. It modifies behaviors of people towards production through acquisition of knowledge and skills in relevant occupations. It develops individuals respect for standard. It modifies individuals moral quality to an acceptable level by community members.
It helps to reduce the menace or criminal behavior of individuals resulting from ignorance and illiteracy. It also helps to develop individuals creativity and independent living. It makes individual to become an acceptable member of his community through systematic adjustment.
Development of Economic Activities in the Community
Economic activities in certain communities are pluralistic and require certain level of knowledge and skill development for success. Hence, the role of adults education in community development. Pluralistic economic activities in a community involves many diverse skilled jobs for deriving wealth for living by individuals.
Some of these are in form of business interest, that is, movement of goods and services from one community to another which involves mobility of people from one community to another for exchange of goods and services to sustain life.
This mobility may involve clear understanding of needs of customers, pricing of commodities, effective bargaining to make profit, understanding of language of others, respect for others culture, traditions , privacy and other behavior typical of community members.
Ability to achieve success in business through overcoming difficulties in the above diversities require certain level of civilization resulting from education.
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Effective Participation in Political and Economic Matters Affecting the Community
An educated individual is expected to exhibit the thinking habit, acceptable attitude, developed initiative, management skills towards decision-making in economic and political matters affecting his community and beyond. The individual should be able to manage his own economy to reduce wastage and help to direct the thinking and behaviors of others towards political benefits of the community.
He should be able to assist the community in planning for economic and political gains beyond his immediate environment. Adult education should be able to develop him to be sensitive to the economic needs of others and to help reduce poverty among the less privilege in his environment.
Maintenance of Good Understanding and Healthy Relationship with other Communities
Many communities are unique while some others are diverse in relation to language, culture, political interest, economic development, social and religious interest, members of a community, in most cases, interact with members of other communities in many diverse ideas, policies and cultures.
In order to maintain these understandings and relationship among diverse groups of specific interest between one community and the relationships among diverse groups of specific interest between one community and the others, members of these communities must be provided with that level of education that could help foster cordial relationships, peace, unity and progress without much bias to diversity in principles and beliefs.
Recognition of Community Rights
Another one role of adults education in community development is the fact that it helps recognize the rights of community. Certain rural/suburb community members are deeply entrenched in their community culture to the extent that they believe that cultural rights are the only legacies they have.
They guide jealously these cultural rights and behavior and cannot develop interest in participating in anything else in the community. Such communities appear to be primitive and are left behind in development. Majority of their cultures and beliefs are relatively primitive and conservative.
