By I am honored to stand before you as a keynote speaker. This honor is accentuated by the fact that your association: Philosophers of Education Association of Nigeria is celebrating its fortieth anniversary as well as holding its forty first annual conference. An association that has survived and fulfilled its major objectives for forty years in Nigeria sings its special ode of resilience, propelled by a dint of purposefulness. I heartily wish you more resilience in the special and arduous circumstance of our country. I also wish you more ground-breaking achievements especially as you strive to provide the much needed enlightenment for our dysfunctional society.
That you are gathered here today bespeaks of the fundamental importance of education in our society and indeed in every society. No sane scholar argues that education is not of central importance in the society. We may disagree about the details, the type of education required, the aims and the objectives of such a system, the necessary emphasis as well as the mechanisms of its transmission. But practically, none, except insane ideologues like supporters of Bokko Harram and the Taliban movement can downplay the importance of education in national development. It is thus difficult to disagree with the following statement of Ilham Oztuk:
Education in every sense is one of the fundamental factors of development … Education raises people’s productivity and creativity and promotes entrepreneurship and technical advances. In addition, it plays a very crucial role in securing economic and social progress and improving income distribution.[1][2]
Furthermore, development, however it is understood, is a desideratum, a point of common agreement in all socio-economic-political discourse; development understood generally as “change in a desirable direction and encompassing many different dimensions” as Fägerland and Saha[3] put it; and according to Futardo involving such criteria as increase in the production capacity of the society; satisfaction of basic needs; and attainment of the positive and rational aims of various groups within the society.[4] (Futardo, 1977: 636).
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[2] Ilhan Utzuk, “The Role of Education in Economic Development,” Journal of Rural Development and Administration, vol 33 (20019), p 39
[3] I. Faegerlind and L. J. Saha, Education and National Development: A Comparative Perspective, 2nd Edition, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1989, p. 29.
[4] C. Furtado, “Development,” International Social Science Journal, 29 (1977), p. 636