FOSTERING NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT NATION BUILDING AND INTEGRATION THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAMME

Abstract

Nigeria is an ethnically, culturally and religiously heterogeneous state, whose peoples, arc also at ling levels of economic, social and educational advancement. This state of affairs has impeded national development and hampered nation building and integration. Attempts by successive administrations to address these problems have not yielded much fruit, owing to poor execution and lopsided nature of the programmes. This paper contends that the Universal Basic Education programme could serve as a veritable instrument for fostering national development, nation building integration if primordial parochialism is de-emphasized in its implementation. It further argues a dynamic and eclectic programme should be designed to attend to the varying needs of the people and eliminate the rigidity and staticism, which were the bane of the previous government programmes.