Sustainable Education as a Catalyst for National Development in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to see the role of sustainable education in promoting national development in Southwest Nigeria and discover how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can integrate Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to handle both regional and national difficulties. The study realizes that education is vital to the advancement of economic, environmental and social causes, so it studies how well ESD has been adopted by HEIs in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti. The study relies on Human Capital Theory and Systems Thinking Theory to show how ESD helps graduates improve their thinking, increase their knowledge of the environment and become responsible citizens. An approach that mixed different methods was chosen, with structured questionnaires given to 286 students from selected universities. Showing that there is much awareness, yet applying ESD is hampered by the lack of money, old teaching programs and weak infrastructure. There are still gaps between the policies that promote sustainability and their actual results. Thankfully, there are opportunities through countries collaborating, vocational trainings becoming integrated and greater World Bank funding. According to the scientists, every part of education should adopt ESD by first creating a strategy, training teachers better, updating educational buildings and teaming up across sectors. Adopting sustainability in everything they do, HEIs can be sources of new ideas and supporters of development for all. The findings confirm that successful implementation of sustainable education can strongly help replace Nigeria’s outdated education system and transform its social and economic situation.