NNAMDI AZIKIWE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY

In his book, Democracy and Education (1916), John Dewey viewed education as a dynamic, lifelong process on the basis of which human society flourishes. Education, in Dewey's reckoning, is not just the acquisition of knowledge, or the means thereof; more importantly, education is a moral concept. It is a project of nation-building because it enables social cohesion and progress. Dewey's insights contrast sharply with the Nigerian policy persuasion, wherein education merely serves as means of acquiring paper qualification for paid employment. Since the late 1970s, the Nigerian public education system has undergone steady decline in quality. Today, moral degeneration and materialism among Nigerian youths have attained a climax. This is partly because the educational system tends to bifurcate education and practical moral living, thus disconnecting education from its social impact in most areas of national life. This paper explores these, and related, problems of Nigeria's educational system through the lens of Dewey's pragmatic approach to educational planning and management. The sources of data for this study were library and archival materials, as well as secondary (Internet) sources, which were subjected to critical content analysis. Dewey's work is particularly useful due to its emphasis on moral education, and because it is focused on learning by doing as an alternative to rote knowledge. It is participatory, and seamlessly addresses itself to the formal and informal dimensions of child education. After a century of this groundbreaking work, its time-tested lessons can ostensibly be used to address the ills of the ailing Nigerian basic education system.

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