Civic Education In Nigeria Pdf Download
Mirthe Luria
Registered in 2006, the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) is a Nigerian not-for-profit organization working to promote human rights, the rule of law, democracy, and accountability. CHRICED is a present grantee of the On Nigeria program under the Joinbodi module. As part of its work, CHRICED has mobilized local communities to participate in resource tracking activities and civic duties, including voting during national elections and constituency project tracking. With this award, CHRICED coordinates, supports, and enhances the capacity of the Indigenous communities in Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, known as Original Inhabitants, toward a resilient growth following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Established in 2006, the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) is a nonprofit organization that uses civics, advocacy, and outreach to mobilize vulnerable and marginalized segments of the population. This award supports CHRICED to engage in public education and community mobilization on COVID-19.
The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) was founded in 2006. It has offices in Abuja and Kano. It is a registered non-profit and non-governmental organisation. CHRICED's mission is the promotion of human rights and the advancement of a democratic, accountable and inclusive political culture in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, and the Nigerian Constitution. It aims to achieve this through research and publications, policy advice, education, advocacy, information-sharing, grassroots organising, and networking. CHRICED has partnered with foundations and development partners across Europe and North America.
An effective civics education teaches students about their rights and responsibilities as citizens, as well as how government works. But in the United States, not all students learn these fundamentals. According to a 2018 study by the Center for American Progress, only nine states and the District of Columbia require high school students to take a full-year course on civics or the U.S. government. Ten states do not require any civics education at all.
Please join the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), a youth-focused nonprofit organization in Nigeria, for a practical workshop focused on identifying ways that young people can lead and participate in civic education. The event will be hosted by our partners at Unite 2030.
Nigeria is currently facing the problem of youth incivility and immorality. The need has arisen to seek informal approaches to the inculcation of desirable values and civic consciousness in the young people in view of the apparent failure of the formal school system to inculcate desirable values. This study was about holiday citizenship education programme for 100 Nigerian youth. It was a quasi experimental research involving a pre-test of the youth's level of civic consciousness before exposing them to series of instructions related to desirable values and civic responsibility after which the post-test was given to the subjects. The post-test mean score was found to be greater than that of pre-test, implying that the treatment had significant impact on the youth's civic consciousness. The need to encourage regular leadership and civic education for youth during school vacation was recommended.
Over the years, attention has been on equipping Nigerian youth with the needed values and social attributes that enhance their acceptance, integration and participation in the society (FRN, 1989). Yet, experiences have shown that the youth are finding it increasingly difficult to lead desirable ways of life, particularly in the areas of human relationships, responsibility, respect, obedience and orderliness. Generally, their level of civility has remained low, a phenomenon attributable largely to the lapses of the school and home. Our concern today, therefore, should be to fill the gaps by exposing the youth to appropriate learning experiences and activities that help to raise their civic consciousness and develop appropriate social values and attributes for effective relationships in the society (Grey, 2001). This is part of what citizenship education is about.
Economic inequality -- the relative distance between the wealthy and the poor -- is growing in the United States. Relatedly, social mobility -- the opportunity to rise economically -- has stalled for many in the nation. This is most true for the urban poor, who experience extreme poverty and are trapped in American inner cities. Meaningful economic opportunity and robust public educational support are among the traditionally-discussed means by which the urban poor may attain enhanced economic and physical mobility. The question becomes whether civic education -- an understanding of the structure and contents of the U.S. Constitution and of the American government more broadly -- has anything to offer in terms of uplifting the urban poor out of their economic stagnation and physical isolation. This Article explores, by way of interviews with various stakeholders, whether there is a cognizable relationship between civic education and increasing the urban poor's prospects for social and physical mobility. It affirms that civic education can play a role in facilitating such mobility and argues that law schools should shoulder some of the responsibility to provide civic education in high schools located in urban areas of concentrated poverty. The Article also provides specific guidance on how civic education programs can be tailored to be most effective in these high schools.
Citizenship education gives people the knowledge and skills to understand, challenge and engage with democratic society including politics, the media, civil society, the economy and the law.
For schools and other educational organisations, it helps to produce motivated and responsible learners, who relate positively to each other, to staff and to the surrounding community. For society it helps to create an active and responsible citizenry, willing to participate in the life of the nation and the wider world and play its part in the democratic process.
One of the first steps on the civic journey is the education system. Education should help young people become active citizens once they understand their role within society and how they can go about improving it.
As one of the few social institutions present in virtually every community across America, schools can and should play an important role in catalyzing increased civic engagement. They can do this by helping young people develop and practice the knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors needed to participate in civic life. Schools can also directly provide opportunities for civic engagement as a local institution that can connect young and old people alike across the community. To do this, civic learning needs to be part and parcel of the current movement across many schools in America to equip young people with 21st-century skills.
The fact that children today across the country wake up in the morning and go to school five days a week for most of the year has everything to do with civic education. The idea of a shared school experience where all young people in America receive a standard quality education is inextricably linked to the development of the United States as a national entity and the development of citizens who had the skills and knowledge to engage in a democracy.
In a democracy, however, the values that are at the core of civic learning are different. They are foundational to helping young people develop the dispositions needed to actively engage in civic life and maintain the norms by which Americans debate and decide their differences. The very nature of developing and sustaining a social norm means that a shared or common experience across all schools is needed. While civic learning has been essential throughout American history, in this age of growing polarization and rising civic deserts, it should be considered an essential component of a 21st-century education.
The crucial question is how to deliver high-quality civic learning across American schools. Researchers in civic learning have reviewed a wide range of approaches and the evidence surrounding their effectiveness. Experts identified a menu of six specific approaches, which was later updated to ten, that if implemented well has been demonstrated to advance civic learning. These range from teaching young people about civics to creating learning opportunities for practicing civic behaviors.
Classroom instruction, including discussing current events and developing media literacy skills, is needed for developing civic knowledge and skills, whether it is delivered as a stand-alone course or lessons integrated into other subjects. Many in the civics education community are advocating for more time devoted to civics from the elementary grades through high school and the corresponding teacher professional development and support required to make this a reality.
Hence, the range of teaching and learning experiences needed to develop civic behaviors and needed for 21st-century skills are similar. They include experiential learning approaches, such as service learning where students work on a community project alongside organizations or extracurricular activities where students learn to work together in teams. Experiential learning can also include simulations of democratic procedures or, better yet, direct engagement in school governance and school climate initiatives. In communities where there is limited opportunities for civic engagement, schools can themselves model civic values by becoming the place where community members gather and connect with each other.
CHRICED is currently pioneering rights-based approach to tackle the debilitating problem of maternal and child mortality in northern Nigeria. We are also intervening in the region to improve accountability in the management of local government resources. Access to education for the girl-child through robust community action has been another core focus of our intervention, as well as preventing early marriage; and the labor exploitation of the vulnerabilities of almajiri street children in Northern Nigeria. CHRICED program targeting marginalized youths, especially in the poor rural areas, has focused on promoting equitable access to economic and livelihood opportunities for youths in northern Nigeria. CHRICED also has over a decade-old experience in monitoring and advocating transparent and credible elections within Nigeria and outside Nigeria.
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