Education can bring about an effective development in the individual. It is a way of helping an individual from the cradle early education follows a structured training mode enabling individuals to acquire education towards attaining a productive society from the cradle.
Education is leeway to equipping the citizens with the attitude, skills, values, and knowledge they need for building a strong, egalitarian and united society in line with the National Policy on Education goals.
Education can be referred to as a civilization foundation over time and space. It is seen by nations of the world as the instrument required for achieving national security. This is one of the many reasons many countries invest a lot in education towards achieving societal needs.
It is, however, unfortunate that many students in Nigeria do not have aces to quality education and this can be linked to the worsening security crises in the country. This is the case even though the government knows the education is the right of every child.
The existing structure one early education
Early education can span the time of birth to the age of eight. It begins with the education of the kid from pre-kindergarten until he reaches primary three. During this period, the school curriculum is focused on learning through play.
The purpose is to make education more interesting to these set of people towards laying a foundation on which they can build future education.
The early education age can be considered as the most vulnerable in the lives of the children and also the stage where they can learn most since virtually anything they learn at this stage can stick very fast and also determine how they live their lives in the future.
While some believe that early childhood education can help a child to better develop in the future, academically, another set of people think there is no link between early childhood educations and how the children perform academically in the future.
This same set of people still think getting educated early does not automatically translate to a good foundation for future learning and living. They press further by insisting that inability of a child to attend a nursery school does not necessarily determine if that child will be able to live through life more confidently or not.
They also insist that such a situation cannot necessarily affect the future educational performance of the kid, neither can it affect the child’s personality.
According to them, a child developed via the traditional formal educational approach can end up making headway even more convincingly than one that started in the nursery system of education.
The two main functions of early childhood education can be classified into the following:
- Custodial function, which is beneficial to parents that are gainfully employed or busy with some other economic activities, thereby preventing them from having adequate time to attend to the needs of their kids at home.
- Preparatory role: It is beneficial in that it enables easy transition of the kids to the next level of education.
How education can combat Nigeria security challenges
Nigeria security challenges can be classified into two broad groups:
- Internal security challenges
- External security challenges
While the external form of security challenges are not for the common man on the street to handle, the latter can play a big role in the external security issues of the country and this is where early ad adequate education comes in.
This may sound confusing to some, but, certainly, the country can successfully combat its series of security challenges via proper education of the populace.
The FRN declared that education is a developmental tool for the nation and can foster individual development and worth. It is the right of every child to access quality education irrespective of any form of disabilities the child may be faced with.
Specific contributions of education to security in Nigeria
Education can promote communication and put individual differences into consideration.
The current educational policies are also expected to make education opportunities available to all at the same level. If the above is to be met, then it will not be difficult to combat Nigeria’s security challenges with education.
Education can be useful in combating Nigerian security problems since it will open the eyes and the minds of the individual to things he is supposed to know about the country.
A good education can improve the commitment of the individual to things like peaceful coexistence and civic responsibility.
It can equally improve family values in the individual and also enhance societal cooperation. It can equally entrench the necessity of human rights in the minds of the pupils and enable them to understand why every individual has the right to forge his own preferences provided it does not erode into the rights of others.
Furthermore, early education can make people appreciate the dignity of labor, which can go a long way in encouraging all and sundry not to shy away from work and to shun shortcuts to financial freedom.
There is no better way to build patriotism in the minds of all and sundry in Nigeria than via education and it is better done from the cradle; that is, via early childhood. Patriotism is one of the necessary tools for curbing security challenges since it will make everyone see himself as being responsible to the country, thereby shunning all forms of unpatriotic acts, which can promote security since everyone will see himself as his brother’s keeper.
Education can help to build a strong foundation of positive values and equally promote good characters among the citizens. It can promote peace and even help to bridge the gap in communication among the various segments, ethnic groups, and religions in the country.
There is no better way to enable the country to bridge the gap in its value systems than via quality education and bridging the gap can build national cohesion, thereby preventing internal security problems.
Adequate education can help the country to adequately and timely track those who are perpetrating all manners of activities that are debilitating the security of the country. So, proper education can be used to catalyze the prevention of internal insecurity and conflicts in Nigeria.
