TEACHING MORAL EDUCATION FOR RESTORATION OF NATIONAL DIGNITY IN NIGERIA

Education is saddled with the onerous responsibility of bringing up children who are responsible and contributing positively to the development of the family, local, national and international communities. This is why all nations strive hard to give the younger generation sound education not only academically but also morally to guarantee a prosperous society. In Nigeria, the desire to build a strong and prosperous nation has led to educationists, curriculum experts and politicians to contemplate not only of a philosophy of sound education founded on high moral standards but also ensuring a national dignity. Nigeria is infested with all sorts of moral decadents- lawlessness on our highways, indiscipline’s in low and high places, in private and public places, etc. to address this trend, curriculum planners have been considering the options of how best to instil morality in the youngsters to guarantee safe and a prosperous future Nigeria. Presently, one view is that moral education, which has been taught within the contexts of the two major religions- Christianity and Islam, need to be harmonized and taught as a subject of its own, where adherence of the religions will be taught together hoping foster mutual understanding and therefore reduction in inter- religions conflicts that have bedevilled the nation. Adherence of both religious faith are yet to accept that arrangement going by the media reactions even though there is yet to be any official position on that. Similarly, other subject specialist are of the opinion that moral education is so important that is should not be equated with religious education is so important that it should not be equated with religious education and so other subjects of the curriculum should also be used as carriers to teach moral education or morality in their contexts. This paper attempt to examine the need for moral education in our school (from Basic to Tertiary). It concludes that even though subject based moral education may lead to curriculum overload, there is the need for all hands to be on deck to ensure that the contents, contexts and the motives of moral education curriculum planers, teachers and supervisor/ inspectors lead to the upbringing of a generation of people who are God fearing, just. Fair, and patriotic to their compatriots and nation and thereby restoring human or/ and national dignity.

Keywords: Moral education, Restoration, National dignity, Nigeria, Religion, Subject based