EKWE JONAL

Education is the most important institution in every nation. This is because education in every nation is the power house from which every other sector, including the health, transportation, political, etc., is powered. What this means is that when the educational sector is given adequate attention and properly funded, the effect reverberates through other sectors in the nation’s life and the consequence usually is holistic growth and sustainable development. However, any nation that neglects its educational sector generally experiences underdevelopment in every aspect of its national life. Nevertheless, while the importance of education to national development has received the robust attention and intervention of scholars, the role of ecumenical education to national development has not received the equal attention of scholars. One of the reasons for this is that the concept of ecumenical education and how this version of education can contribute to national development has not been properly explored. Using the documentary method and conceptual analysis for date collection and interpretation, this study explores the relevance of ecumenical education in national development. The paper discovered that while educational goals cover specific areas of human interests and needs, ecumenical education is holistic education because it is the kind of education that looks at human needs and goal of education comprehensively. While underscoring the importance of this form of education to national development, the paper underscored that poor funding is the basic factor militating against the implementation of ecumenical education in Nigeria. It therefore recommended that Nigeria should allot at least 26% of its budgetary allocations to the educational sector in order to revamp the system and put Nigeria on the part of the fast-growing global digital economy.

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