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ATTAINMENT OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS THROUGH EDUCATIONAL REFORMS: A ROAD MAP FOR NIGERIA
by
Idowu Biao
Department of Adult & Continuing Education University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria.
PREAMBLE
The Chair of the Opening Ceremony of the 2007 National Conference of the Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria Nsukka, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Nigeria Nsukka, the Dean, Faculty of Education, the Chair, Conference Planning Committee, Our Lords, Temporal and Spiritual, ladies and gentlemen.
I must begin by thanking the management of the Faculty of Education of this great university for granting me the rare honour to talk at one of its prestigious annual conferences; it gives me great pleasure to be here in Nsukka to talk to this distinguished audience; it gives me even greater pleasure to learn that Professor B. G. Nworgu is the current Dean of Education in this university. As a young academic of the 1980s and 1990s, B. G. Nworgu was so possessed with the idea of endowing Nigeria with so qualitative an education system that he organized a group of up-coming academics throughout the country to establish the Association For Promoting Quality Education in Nigeria.
I was a young lecturer in Bayero University, Kano in the early 1990s when that Association made me the coordinator of its activities, in the northern part of Nigeria. Prof. Nworgu, having assumed the Deanery of Faculty of Education of this university with this enviable background, naturally implies that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka is currently basking in QUALITY EDUCATION.
I shall not end this preamble without transmitting to you the warm greetings of Prof. Bassey Okon ASUQUO, current Vice-Chancellor, University of Calabar and the warm traditional greetings of the people of Cross River State, one of which is Misere! To this greeting, you are to answer, Misere Nde!
INTRODUCTION
Philosophers through the ages have reminded us that in the material world, all things are ever becoming; this is another way of saying that no condition is permanent and that the only permanent phenomenon on earth is change itself.
It is within this context that educational reforms and indeed all types of reforms that man may undertake must be viewed, conceptualised and understood. Reforms, like all sensible human actions, are never carried out as a pass time; they are invoked when a system is found to have outlived its usefulness and when the pressures of time and space continuum and man’s consciousness have combined to impose the need for search for a better and workable alternative.
Nigeria as a nation has, in the past, found compelling reasons to embark upon educational reforms. While it is true that Nigeria took off in 1960 as a politically independent nation with a narrow view of what a national education should be, by 1977, the country endowed itself with its first national policy on education. From this moment on, all proposed educational reforms got anchored on clearly defined reasons and objectives
EDUCATIONAL REFORMS IN NIGERIA
Educational reform implies renovation of educational concept, policies and structures with the view to achieving identifiable objectives; it is often the refocusing, the redirecting of the total educational practice of a society. Although an identifiable field of human endeavour, education has many parts; broadly speaking, we may identify three forms of education, namely, formal, non-formal and informal education; formal and non-formal forms of education are organised forms of education while informal education is an unorganised type of education.
In Nigeria, talking about education often implies discussing formal education; this is because, beginning from the 1950s, the idea spread like wild fire among nationalist struggle leaders that education, that is, the Euro-American type of education was the cornerstone of development in the newly independent African nations that were to be born at the wake of the 1960s. Consequently, at independence and especially between 1960 and 1983, the Euro-American type of education otherwise known as formal education, got promoted in Nigeria and in the whole of independent Africa so greatly that according to World Bank (1988:12-13), the number of students enrolled in Nigerian institutions at all levels, quintupled; primary school enrolments increased the most in absolute terms as enrolment even exceeded the fifth fold; the number of secondary schools trippled and secondary school enrolments went up three folds; the number of teacher training institutions went up three folds and students’ enrolment in those institutions increased three folds; the number of universities doubled and a dramatic increase in university students’ enrolment was recorded. Additionally, the number of teachers increased about fourfold at primary school level, eightfold at secondary school level and threefold at the tertiary level during this same period.
However, by mid 1980s, this impressive performance of the educational sector has been forced to slow down and to begin a regression by the 1990s as a result of a prolonged national economic recession which set in by the 1980s. Alth0ugh, the National Policy on Education was rewritten in 1981 and 1998, the recommendations thereof remained dead letters as they could not be carried through as a result of the prolonged national economic recession mentioned earlier.
Nevertheless, each attempt at reforming education in the country was based on clearly stated perceived development objectives. While earlier reforms emphasised the need to develop both liberal and practical education on equal footing, others emphasised the need to open access to formal education through the establishment of special institutions that would facilitate the coexistence of work and study; yet others enlarged the formal education curriculum to include emerging knowledge areas such as Information Communication Technology (ICT), Tourism and the like.
The educational reforms sought after at this beginning of the 21st century are based on the prescriptions of the millennium development goals (MDGs). Currently, MDGs are the most influential and most popular development objectives on earth. Having been adopted by the United Nations Organisation, all countries of the earth are currently working hard to meet its challenges, advance human development and achieve environmental safety and stability. But what are the Millennium Development Goals?
THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
The millennium development goals are a human development agenda which is not only environmental friendly but includes efforts aimed at maintaining a life-sustaining environment. Each goal has a target and indicators are spelt out as how to evaluate the achievement of each of the goals of the millennium development agenda. According to Fasokun (2006) the following are the Millennium Development Goals, Targets and Indicators (MDG - Goals, Targets and Indicators, 2006)Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hungerTarget 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day
Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower womenTarget 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015
Goal 4: Reduce child mortalityTarget 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Goal 5: Improve maternal healthTarget 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseasesTarget 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainabilityTarget 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water · Indicator 30: Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and ruralTarget 11: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Target 12:
Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and
financial system [Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and
poverty reduction – both nationally and internationally] Indicator 33: Net ODA, total and to LDCs, as percentage of OECD/DAC ( Development Assistance Committee) donors’ GNI
Target 14: Address the Special Needs of landlocked countries and Small Island developing States (through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the 22nd special session of the General Assembly)
Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term
Target 16: In co-operation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
Target 17: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries
Target 18: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications
Each of the millennium development goal has been provided with a target as well as with an indicator; a target is the point or level fixed as minimum or optimum measure of achievement while an indicator is that phenomenon or that thing fixed as evidence for the achievement of the target.
For example, Goal 1 seeks to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. The target relevant to this goal is Target 1; this target seeks to halve (reduce to half) between 1990 and 2015, the population of people earning less than one dollar a day. The indicator which is to be used as evidence of the attainment of this Target 1, is Indicator 1; through an actual census of persons who lived below one dollar before and who may be living below one dollar a day by 2015, it will be possible to establish whether or not Target 1 has been met.
In other words, achievements at the level of each of the 8 millennium development goals are measurable and verifiable. But how are these goals to be achieved? Who are the main clients for each development goal? and what strategies are to be employed in the process of actualising each of these goals?
Goal 1 seeks to eradicate extreme poverty. The clients or target audience for this goal is the out of school or adult population of the society; this is because, it is only when the adult population is able to conquer poverty that hunger may be eradicated from all strata of society. A large dose of education aimed both at equipping these adults with the right skills and at adequately managing resources that may become theirs is needed.
Goal 2 aims at achieving universal primary education. This goal cannot be achieved without the support of the adult population; the adult population will not lend its support to the actualisation of this goal unless it is conscientised to the point of being convinced of the rationale and social and economic benefits of schooling all its children. Therefore, while universal primary education may be designed for children, no children will be found in the schools, if the parents are not thoroughly briefed and informed about the advantages and necessity to send these children to school. Here again, therefore the main target audience for the actualisation of Goal 2, is the adult population.
Goal 3 seeks to promote gender equality and women empowerment. These are issues entirely for adults; children and youths are hardly aware of any differences existing between the sexes, to create a functional dichotomy between them. It is among adults that we identify oppressors, power mongers and dangerous rulers who are the promoters of evils such as myriads of types of inequality and oppression. The main audience targeted by this goal is again the adult population.
Goal 4 seeks to reduce child mortality. It is not the child who is hardly born that will reduce its own mortality. The target audience here too is the adult population that needs the right kind of education that will equip it with the appropriate techniques for child care and survival.
Goal 5 aims at improving maternal health. It is the sole responsibility of adult persons to improve maternal health. In order to achieve this, they need adequate information, skills and equipment. The main clients targeted by this goal too are therefore made up of the adult population.
Goal 6 seeks to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. This is a Herculean task which only adults can tackle; adults therefore need adequate information and skills to actualize this goal.
Goal 7 aims at ensuring environmental sustainability. Children and youths interact with the environment on the terms of adults; in other words, it is the adults that dictate the manner in which children interact with the environment; children and youths only help the adults to deal with the environment just the way adults choose to deal with the environment; it is the adults that endanger the environment through their excessive exploitation of environmental resources; and it is adults that mismanage the resources of the environment through their ignorant environmental practices. In order to ensure a sustainable environment therefore, adults must begin to teach the children and youths enlightened manners of relating with the environment. Adults cannot teach children and youths, unless they themselves come into such an important knowledge. The point of departure therefore, if Goal 7 must be actualised is the adult population.
Goal 8 seeks to develop a global partnership for development. The development of any society rests in the hands of the adult population. It is this same adult population that chooses the tools for development and the strategies to be used to achieve each goal of the development plan. Goal 8 therefore, also targets the adult population.
From the foregoing, it is clearly shown that the stratum of society in whose hands the implementation, actualisation, and success of the millennium development goals have been put, is the adult population. The main process and tool through which the millennium development goals are to be actualised is education.
But who is an adult? and which type of education is most suitable for a speedy actualisation of the millennium development goals in Nigeria?
An adult person may be determined using chronological, historical, biological, legal, economic, social, psychological and/or aviational parameters; chronological parameters establish adulthood on the basis of a person’s age or number of years spent on earth; historical parameters acknowledge a person as adult when he/she is able to narrate flawlessly the story of his community or society; biological parameters are employed to determine adulthood when the human body has attained biological maturity such that puberty and other signs can be noticed; legal parameters are used where the books of Law have made specific provisions and pronouncements; when a person, irrespective of his/her age, is able to take on economic activities as adults are known to do, such a person is accepted as an adult. Where a person, irrespective of his/her age, is able to perform adult social roles, he/she is accepted as adult; an individual who is able to keep his/her head while others lose theirs or who shows bravery in the face of adversity, is said to be psychologically mature and therefore an adult; the aviation industry categorizes all persons into two groups of youths and adults in a way which is not common; by 12 years, a person has attained aviational adulthood whereas below this age, all persons are considered to be children.
This therefore is the target audience for the actualisation of the millennium development goals. Which form of education is appropriate for this audience? Adult education which is also known as non-formal education. Which manner of education is adult education?
In addition to being a less than a century old academic discipline, adult or non-formal education is a fairly organised form of education which is dispensed and received outside the formal education structure. In occasions where adult education is squeezed into the formal scheme of education (commercialised educational programmes in tertiary institutions, recurrent education for workers, etc..), it enjoys the lowering and softening of such known formal education safeguards as rigid time-tabling, authoritarian student-teacher relationship, teacher-dominated curriculum development and it increases freedom and democracy beyond that obtainable within the formal school system.
NON-FORMAL EDUCATION STRATEGIES APPROPRIATE FOR THE ACTUALISATION OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN NIGERIA
Given that the target date for the actualisation of the MDGs is 2015 and because only little has been accomplished by the year 2007, a sense of urgency imposes itself; indeed a feeling of national emergency ought to begin to rule the implementation of the MDGs in Nigeria. However, going by the way nations are going about actualizing MDGs, two major strategies for the implementation of the millennium development goals seem to have emerged. These two main strategies are discussed here.
The first strategy is one which concentrates on the education of children and the youths; it is a strategy which seeks to actualise the millennium development goals through formal education by reforming educational curricula, retraining teaching personnel and improving educational infrastructures and management styles. This strategy implies that within 12 years (9 years of primary schooling + 3 years of junior secondary schooling) or within 19 years (9 years of primary schooling + 3 years of junior secondary schooling + 3 years of senior secondary schooling + 4 years of tertiary education) such a high population of MDGs friendly and knowledgeable persons would have been produced in the country that Nigeria would have developed in line with the wishes of the millennium development goals.
The important assumptions of this strategy are that:
1. Persons outside of the school system are not as important as those currently within the school system in the process of the actualisation of the MDGs.
2. The eventual large population of MDGs friendly persons that will be produced will have the capacity to douse, annul and cancel the foreseeable negative effect that the illiteracy of those currently out of school may have, over the implementation of MDGs in the society.
3. Many adults within society would die off, thereby obeying the law of natural elimination which will limit the capacity of their illiteracy nuisance to an eventual MDGs friendly and knowledgeable society.
4. For the benefits of those adults who will stubbornly remain alive and who may refuse to die off as easily as anticipated, a few radio and television jingles would be aired with the view to soliciting their support in the process of the implementation of the millennium development goals.
Going by the earlier analysis made here which points to the fact that each of the goals of the millennium development goals targets principally adult populations and in the light of research findings which submit that about ¾ of persons needing basic education are found outside the formal school system (UBEC, 2006; Biao, 2006), this first strategy can lead only to an unsuccessful prosecution of all that the millennium development goals stand for. Indeed, this first strategy is a surest way of taking Nigeria and any country for that matter out of the list of nations that will ever attain the goals of the millennium development agenda.
The second strategy for prosecuting the MDGs through educational reforms, is that which turns the whole society into a gigantic learning arena with the view to bringing all strata of society to participate in the actualisation of the millennium development goals; those strata of society whose participation and input into the process of MDGs are viewed as important include children and youths at school, children and youths out of school, women, parents, members of government at the local, state and national levels, international partners and non-governmental organizations.
The main assumptions of this second strategy are the following:
1. The cooperation of all is needed in the actualisation of the MDGs
2. The primary target audience for the MDGs is the adult population that can be found mainly outside the school system because a) this adult population constitutes ¾ of the national population and because b) from this population, come the society’s decision makers; most of these decision makers are currently ill-prepared and ill-equipped to appreciate the demands of the millennium development goals.
This large proportion of potential adult learners was arrived at and retained as authentic figure because it has been consistently shown that only 1 out of every 3 Nigerian school age children ever gets a place in primary schools while only 1 out of every 16 secondary school age youths finds a place in secondary schools (Adesina & Johnson, 1981; Biao, 1991, 1995). To the group of children denied primary and secondary school education and who willy nilly have grown into illiterate adults, we must add the scores of adult persons who never even ever thought of schooling or who unsuccessfully tried schooling as they eventually dropped out.
Most of these adult decision makers are currently ill-equipped not only because they are illiterate in a traditional sense but also because they are functionally illiterate in a Nigeria of the 21st century. For example they have no idea of what globalization, environmental degradation, nuclear energy and Information Communication Technology portend for them; yet, these phenomena impact on them heavily and may soon overrun them and make them miserable if they are not helped to understand them.
Unless therefore, this large population of adult decision makers who are parents and guardians understand these things, they will not be supportive of the learning, a few of their children and wards may be going through at school; and without the support of this important segment of society, no social project, including the millennium development agenda, can succeed.
THE ROAD MAP
There is consensus and there is no dissenting voice to the fact that the millennium development goals can be actualised in Nigeria only through reforming the present educational system. Divergence of opinions sets in only at the level of choosing the suitable format of reforms to be introduced. Here is proposed a format of reforms simply known as “The Road Map”; this format creates a place for both children and adults.
Diagrammatically, the road map stands thus:
Figure 1 shows that on the road leading to the actualisation of the millennium development goals, there exists major junctions; these junctions are actually the three major institutions upon which rests the responsibility for supplying cost-effective and relevant educational programmes that will eventually lead to realistic actualisation of the millennium development goals; these three institutions are the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the National Mass Education Commission (NMEC) and the Tertiary Institutions Coordinating Bodies which include the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Open University (NOU).
Each of these institutions has many levels of instruction; e.g. primary and secondary for UBEC, non-formal basic education, non-formal secondary education and non-formal vocational education for NMEC and Bachelor and post-graduate studies for Tertiary Institutions.
The first step towards actualising the MDGs is the review of existing curricula for each of these levels of instruction at the level of each of these institutions; what then should be the contents of these reviewed curricula? In addition to all other contents that may be found nationally or locally exigent, these curricula are to contain in various degrees of difficulty or to facilitate the attainment of the following:
1. Acquisition of relevant communicative skills (self-expression and decision making ability) specifically and acquisition of basic education in a general sense.
2. Acquisition of vocational skills and acquisition of income generating skills.
3. The curricula should be preceded by an analysis of learning needs relevant to major localities in the country with the view to building the discovered local learning needs into the reviewed curricula.
4. In addition to helping learners acquire communicative skills as mentioned earlier, the whole of life skills should be included in the reviewed curricula; the knowledge of life skills enables learners to acquire communicative skills; but it equally helps them to build a robust self-esteem and it acquaints them with their rights as children, women and parents; life skills also introduce individuals to life promoting values contrary to life destroying values and they help individuals to develop healthy lifestyles even as they learn to avoid common and avoidable social and environmental diseases.
5. Acquisition of skills for health extension work and information about common health problems in the country.
6. Acquisition of general information and skills for coping and managing People Living With HIV/AIDS.
7. Acquisition of information about relationship existing between man and the environment and introduction of learners to the harms that man has so far inflicted on the environment.
8. Acquisition of the information and demonstration that the world has become a global village and that only collaboration, tolerance and partnership may ensure man’s happiness wherever he/she may be.
With these eight curricula content areas, the actualisation of the MDGs will be more of a reality than a dream in Nigeria because of the following reasons:
a) Curricula content areas 1 and 2 would have addressed the concern of Goal Number 1 of the MDGs which is the eradication of extreme poverty.
b) Curricula content area 3 would have ensured maximum enrolment into primary schools leading to universal primary education as local learning needs that will promote high enrolment, would have been included into the reviewed curricula; this is the concern of Goal 2 of the MDGs.
c) Curricula content areas 1 and 4 would have promoted the aim of Goal 3 of the MDGs as which is promotion of gender equality and women empowerment.
d) Curricula content areas 4, 5 and 6 would have addressed the concerns of Goals 4, 5 and 6 of the MDGs as they concern reduction of child and maternal mortality and arresting the stop of HIV/AIDS. e) Curricula content area 7 would have appropriately informed learners of the right position of the environment in man’s life; this is the aim of Goal 7 of the MDGs and
f) Curricula content area 8 would have addressed the concern of Goal 8 of the MDGs which is the promotion of global partnership and collaboration.
The second step towards actualizing MDGs, constitutes in training the academic and non-academic personnel of these institutions in the use of the reviewed curricula; principally, the academic personnel must be helped to understand both the rationale and philosophy of the millennium development goals; the training shall also enlighten them about the meaning and didactic implications of each of the goals of the MDGs.
The third step involves the running of the reviewed curricula in a way as to enable each of the major institutions to run in accordance to the prescriptions of the road map.
To this end, UBEC is to take charge of schooling school age children; this schooling is to be carried out through the formal school framework of formal primary and secondary schools; currently, these schools are not adequate in number to accommodate all school age children in the country; the need has arisen therefore to make proportionate increase of these schools, a priority.
The domain of NMEC is the non-formal education sector; the responsibility of this sector is to engage all out-of-school youths and adults into meaningful learning; this meaningful learning shall be carried out through the non-formal basic education programme, the non-formal vocational education programme and the non-formal secondary education programme; products of non-formal basic education may mainstream into formal secondary education schooling and learners of non-formal secondary education programme may mainstream into colleges of education, higher schools of skills training and universities.
However, at the tertiary level of education, it is the National Open University that offers greatest opportunities to those who intend to pursue tertiary education in a non-formal way. At the tertiary level therefore, while learners coming from the formal secondary schools may gain admission for further studies into regular colleges of education, higher schools of skills training and universities, they may also mainstream into the National Open University system if their post-secondary school engagement or professional life did not permit full time schooling. In the same vein, products of the non-formal secondary level education, apart from having ample opportunities to continue their learning within the National Open University, may mainstream into colleges of education, higher schools of skills training and regular and conventional universities if their post-secondary education life style permitted them enough time to go into full time learning.
All that has been postulated this far, sounds beautiful and logical and even convincing; yet, great policies and blueprints have failed before and arguably, sound judgements have in the past failed to yield the expected and the much sought after results. It is because of these facts that this discussion will not end without mentioning two safeguards for the successful implementation of the millennium development goals in Nigeria; these two safeguards are “monitoring” and “evaluation”.
Monitoring
Monitoring is a process whereby inputs for implementation of a project are constantly checked for continuous availability, adequacy, functionality and relevance. In other words, monitoring ensures that those facilities and resources needed for successful implementation are continuously available in adequate quantity and quality, remain functional and relevant throughout the implementation phase.
In the case of MDGs compliant educational reforms, inputs that are to be monitored include supply of funds, funds utilization, maintenance of a minimum level of learning-promoting environment (psychologically and materially), performance of administrative personnel, performance of academic personnel and performance of support staff.
Given that tendencies for mismanagement are not a rare phenomenon in this country, a crack monitoring team made up of persons of integrity whom, fortunately the country does not lack, should be set up. This type of monitoring team is the hope and the heart of this project as only it, will ensure and guarantee attainment of the millennium development goals through educational reforms.
Evaluation
Evaluation is the process of verifying whether the objectives and final goal have been achieved; consequently, evaluation experts talk about formative evaluation, summative evaluation and ex post facto evaluation. Evaluation may be carried out using different models including the bureaucratic, autocratic and participatory models.
In the case of MDGs compliant educational reforms, evaluation will seek to highlight whether or not all school age children were enrolled in schools at the end of the specified time; whether learning objectives set for each course and for each level of instruction are being met (when formative evaluation is applied) and whether these objectives were finally met (when summative evaluation is applied).
The evaluation team that is expected to be set up shall be made up of expert hands in educational evaluation matters; this team’s work would be smooth if the monitoring team were successful in its task of thorough monitoring.
CONCLUSION
The millennium development goals constitute the most influential development project of the beginning of this 21st century. All reforms therefore, including educational reforms must seek to align with the dictates of these goals if the Nigerian society must remain a relevant member of the committee of nations in this third millennium.
The road map outlined here for the purpose of carrying out MDGs friendly educational reforms is one sure way for launching Nigeria into the orbit of advanced nations of the earth by 2020.
REFERENCES
Adesina, S. & Johnson,T. (1981) Cost-benefit analysis of education in Nigeria. Lagos: Lagos University Press
Biao, I. (2006) “The place of NFE under the UBE Law ”. A paper presented at the 2006 International Literacy Day, Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria
Biao, I. (1995) “A Comparative Study of Adult Literacy Education Practices in Francophone and Anglophone West Africa”. International Journal of University Adult Educaton, XXXIV, 2:44-55.
Biao, I. (1991) “Towards a Political Commitment Approach to the Provision of Education for All in Nigeria”, in Kolo, I. et al (eds). (1991) Readings in Education For All. Lagos: Text and Leisure Publishers.
Fasokun, T. (2006) The United Nations Millennium Development Goals in Perspective. A paper presented at the 2006 Nigerian National Council For Adult Education Conference. University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria.
UBEC (2006) Adult education: the cutting edge for successful implementation of the universal basic education programme in Nigeria. Abuja: UBEC
World Bank (1988) Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington D.C.: World Bank.
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 1: Road map for actualising the millennium development goals in Nigeria
A CITATTION ON Prof. Idowu Biao of the Department of Adult & Continuing Education, University of Calabar
Professor Idowu Biao is a Professor of Adult Education. He holds a Diploma in Journalism from the London School of Journalism, a Bachelor of Education (Adult Education), a Masters in Education (Adult Education) and a Ph.D. in Adult Education all from the University Lagos.
He is an international scholar as he has published more than 50 articles many of which are to be found in international journals. He also has more than 80 monographs to his credit. He has attended about 80 national and international conferences in the field of adult education and education.
With colleagues from Glasgow, UK, Botswana and Malawi, he is currently working on an international research project which seeks to find out the impact that non-formal education may have on poverty reduction in developing countries.
Prof. Idowu Biao is married to Esohe Patience and the couple is blessed with three children.
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