COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS IN NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY

Abstract

Communities are strategic in a variety of ways towards the provision and management of education as well as teaching, learning and enforcement processes. However, communities play a variety of roles in the enhancement of democratic practice and stability. This paper discusses how communities can be involved in the promotion and management of education as well as the development of the capacity of communities to assume increased role in handling the entire education environments towards enhanced funding, management and monitoring under democratic settings. Method used in this study is the content analysis of community and democratic participation in various forms and dimensions in order to show the challenges and prospects in the Nigerian setting. Results in the study indicate that community participation in education and democratic participation must be inherently connected to each other for stable polity and good governance, as well as expansion of educational and other services. It is recommended that partnership and interaction between community and government in education must be built to provide initiative, responsibility, sensitivity for participation in education and governance designed to prevent break in communication and breakdown of law and order.