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Reducing poverty in Nigeria

through home economics


education

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................3
OBJECTIVES OF THIS PRESENTATION.............................................5
RESEARCH QUESTIONS.................................................................5
STATEMENT OF THIS PRESENTATION.............................................6
WHAT IS POVERTY.........................................................................7
CAUSES OF POVERTY..................................................................7
The CBN poverty Assessment and Alleviation study (1999)
summarized the causative factor of poverty as:.........................7
WHAT IS HOME ECONOMICS..........................................................9
THE ROLE OF HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION IN POVERTY
REDUCTION..............................................................................10
The basic mission of Home Economics Education is helping
individuals and families to improve their lives through:.........10
The educational goals go in line with the objectives of Home
Economics Education, which include:.....................................10
The recipient of Home Economics Education is expected to
have acquired basic expertise in a particular branch in which
he shows special aptitude and interest..................................10
Graduates of Home Economics Education may establish in any
of the following areas:............................................................10
Factors that can Hinder Effective Teaching of Home Economics
Education for Skills Acquisition and Poverty Reduction.............12
Conclusion..................................................................................12

ABSTRACT
Poverty in Nigeria has outgrown the imaginative minds of the
early Nigerian economic Analysts history has shown that it has
prevailed continuously overtime across all geographical regions
and majority of Nigerians live within it adverse effects.
Graduates are faced with unemployment, hunger and other faces
of poverty while many homes strive to survive from whatever
little they could dig up.
The survival of any nation or people is predicated on the level of
development and where ever the standard of living is low, the
nation or people stand at risk of total economic collapse.
Home Economics Education curriculum is adequately structured
to meet the challenges of today. It is a vital tool which can be
used to develop individuals since it is being re-branded and
repositioned to capture its progressive roots, make programmes
more vibrant and sustainable to alleviate poverty through
creativity and entrepreneurship education.
Home Economics Education is a field where opportunities exist for
promoting self-employment and employment in private and public
sector of the economy for reducing unemployment and poverty in
the country.
The purpose of this presentation is to re-orientate the general
public on the diverse means through Home Economics Education
can help in alleviating poverty in Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION
Poverty is the inability to attain a minimal standard of living
measured in terms of basic consumption needs or income
required to satisfy them. It is one of the most serious problems
faced by families in Nigeria today.
Past governments between 1972 and now have mounted at least
eight projects that were meant to alleviate poverty and billions of
naira was spent on these projects yet Nigerians have remained
poor and hungry. Nigeria, one of the largest country in Africa and
the sixth largest oil producing country in the world has an
estimated population of 150 million people living in both rural and
urban areas exposed to the economic rigors of POVERTY.
The international fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) (2007)
noted that Despite its plentiful resources and oil wealth, poverty
is widespread in Nigeria. The situation has worsened since the
late 1990s, to the extent that the country is now considered one
of the 20 poorest countries in the world. Over 70 percent of the
population is classified as poor, with 35 percent living in absolute
poverty.
Poverty which is the inability of an individual or a group in
securing the basic necessities of life such as clothing, food health,
portable water and shelter, is deadly. It is a serious problem which
has eaten deep into the fabric of African countries.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was adopted in 2000


and the target date for achieving the goals is 2015. Nigeria is a
party to the adoption of MDGs. The year 2015 is just a year away
and poverty is still on the increase in Nigeria.
If poverty eradication strategies are the main Goal of MDGs, Then
how can this be achieved..
OBJECTIVES OF THIS PRESENTATION
To appraise if Home Economics Educational can use as a
tool for empowering students in the industries of their
discipline in other to curb the effects of POVERTY.
To explore the effectiveness of Skills & Entrepreneurial
development strategy in Home Economics Education if
implemented, towards NATIONAL Economy.
To see if the current educational system stimulates Home
Economics Education in its students

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Does Home Economics Education help empower students
in the industries of their discipline?
Are the Skills & Entrepreneurial development strategies in
Home Economics Education being implemented truly
effective?
Does the classroom stimulate creativity necessary for
Home Economics Education in the students?

STATEMENT OF THIS PRESENTATION


Unemployment prevails in the country, hence, the growth of
violence, poverty and segregation amongst citizens, because the
educational system itself fails to empower the ones passing it
with the necessary skills needed to become self-dependent.
Education in Nigeria is devoid of the element crucial to averting
the surging rate of unemployment in the country, therefore the
breeding of psychological dependence on direct access to money.
Entrepreneurial Skills development through Home Economics
Education will advance the economy of the nation and rid it of the
prevalent surge of POVERTY.
But first, the Fundamental TRUTH must be laid down through
answers given to direct questions asked Information must be
transferred from the higher source to the lower source before
Empowerment sets in.

WHAT IS POVERTY
There is a strong connection between poverty, hunger and human
development. This connective cord is very significant indeed as
poverty and hunger can both be seen as the exact opposite of
human development.
All the attributes of human development are deprived by poverty.
Poverty is lack of job. Poverty is hunger, poor health, low
education, low self-esteem, lack of adequate housing, lack of
land, inability to cloth oneself/family low economic status.
Maduagwu (2007) concluded that poverty creates frustration, loss
of hope/prospects and value for life, loss of meaning for life and
purpose of living. Poverty is not only inadequate income; it is
also the lack of access to basic services and amenities, the lack of
security and exclusion from community life. The recommendation
is to focus efforts to uproot the causes of poverty and to achieve
the involvement of the poor themselves taking part in the
elaboration of policies which concern them.
This is where HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION comes in as it can
be reviewed in order to be effective in the variety of life situations
and everyday socio-economic and cultural demands of people and
their families who live in poverty.
Poverty is general scarcity or dearth, or the state of one who lacks
a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute
poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human

needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing,


shelter, health care and education. Relative poverty is defined
contextually aseconomic inequality in the location or society in
which people live.
After the industrial revolution, mass production in factories made
production

goods

accessible.

Of

increasingly

more

less

importance

is

expensive
the

and

more

modernization

of

agriculture, such as fertilizers, to provide enough yield to feed the


population. Responding to basic needs can be restricted by
constraints on government's ability to deliver services, such as
corruption, tax avoidance, debt and loan conditionalities and by
the brain drain of health care and educational professionals.
Strategies of increasing income to make basic needs more
affordable typically include welfare, economic freedoms, and
providing financial services.
Poverty reduction is a major goal and issue for many international
organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. The
World Bank estimated 1.29 billion people were living in absolute
poverty in 2008. Of these, about 400 million people in absolute
poverty lived in India and 173 million people in China. In terms of
percentage of regional populations, sub-Saharan Africa at 47%
had the highest incidence rate of absolute poverty in 2008.
Between 1990 and 2010, about 663 million people moved above
the absolute poverty level. Still, extreme poverty is a global
challenge; it is observed in all parts of the world, including

developed economies. UNICEF estimates half the worlds children


(or 1.1 billion) live in poverty.

Characteristics of POVERTY
The effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus
creating a "poverty cycle" operating across multiple levels,
individual, local, national and global.
Health

One third of deaths some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per


day are due to poverty-related causes: in total 270 million
people, most of them women and children, have died as a result
of poverty since 1990.[
Hunger

Rises in the costs of living making poor people less able to afford
items. Poor people spend a greater portion of their budgets on
food than richer people. As a result, poor households and those
near the poverty threshold can be particularly vulnerable to
increases in food prices.
Education

Research has found that there is a high risk of educational


underachievement for children who are from low-income housing
circumstances. This is often a process that begins in primary
school for some less fortunate children. Instruction in the US
educational system, as well as in most other countries, tends to
be geared towards those students who come from more
advantaged backgrounds.

Housing

Poverty increases the risk of homelessness. Slum-dwellers, who


make up a third of the world's urban population, live in a poverty
no better, if not worse, than rural people, who are the traditional
focus of the poverty in the developing world, according to a report
by the United Nations.
Utilities

Water utility subsidies tend to subsidize water consumption by


those connected to the supply grid, which typically skewed
towards the richer and urban segment of the population and
those outside informal housing. As a result of heavy consumption
subsidies, the price of water decreases to the extent that only
30%, on average, of the supplying costs in developing countries is
covered.

CAUSES OF POVERTY
Given the magnitude and spread of poverty, and the desire to
curb its spread, there is a need to identify the causes of poverty.
There are basically two conceptual sources of poverty, namely:
a)

Factors that make the number of individuals in the

consuming unit, larger in relation to the amount of productive


services the unit is able to supply. That is, there is an excessive
family size in relation to income.
b)

Factors which make the value of the productive

services the household can supply, low relative to the household


needs or physical incapacity and discrimination in terms of age
colour, race or sex.

The CBN poverty Assessment and Alleviation study (1999)


summarized the causative factor of poverty as:
i. The stage of Economic and Social Development: Even
when a countrys export earnings might be abundant, situation of
economic underdeveloped might pose a management constraint
on absorptive capacity or use of funds for development project
which are either not available, or properly targeted.
ii. Low Productivity: In this case, the consuming unit (individuals
of households) is unable to earn enough income which will enable
them to maintain adequate living standards. This would result
from the low utilization or low acquisition of human skills due to
low education, poor health or physical incapacity and inadequate
access to productive assets. This lead to unemployment and
underemployment.
iii. Market Imperfections: These are factors which through
institutional

distortions,

would

not

allow

equal

access

to

productive assets and introduce forms of discrimination that


prevent the advancement of people. These factors could arise
from ignorance, culture, sex, age, race and so on. Market
imperfections also arise from distortions in the employment
market, and skewed income distribution structure that favours
some classes in the society and renders the less favoured class
poorer.
iv.

Structural

Shift

in

the

Economy: This

results

from

inadequate macroeconomic management policies in which undue

concentration is given to a particular sector of the economy, to


almost

total

neglect

of

others.

In

Nigerias

case,

from

independence (1960 to the 1970), her major export commodities


were cocoa, palm produce, rubber and groundnut (agricultural
goods) which provide jobs for rural poor. But by 1971, Nigerias
structural shift occurred in favour of crude oil, due to its greater
foreign exchange earnings. As such, the country became a monoexport country, such that agriculture suffered a setback and mass
poverty became the lot of the rural sector, and rural labour
alternative jobs in the urban cities.
v. Political Instability: The failure to successfully actualize
political transition programmes, result in social and economic
unrest domestically and internationally. Productive ventures are
unable to flourish with a restricted and market for sales,
investments are withdrawn, jobs are insecure, and the general
citizenry faces economic insecurity.
vii. Corruption: in an attempt to measure corruption, a nongovernmental organization. Transparency international, developed
the perception of corruption in world countries on a scale of 10-1,
where a score of 10 implies that a country is free of corruption,
and a score of 1 implies that a country is completely corrupt in
terms of its damaging impact on human development. Corruption
here refers to the rush to share the national cake, in which public
funds are collected and spend inefficiently, for no particular
purpose except to reward recipients.

WHAT IS HOME ECONOMICS


Home Economics Education, a skill oriented course, is a field of
study that offers numerous occupations for individuals.

it

possesses the capability of equipping individuals with saleable


skills that make for self-employment, self-reliance and creation of
wealth.
It is an all-embracing programme that focuses on the welfare of
individuals and their families. It is a vocational and skill based
education which prepares one for gainful employment, employer
of labour, good family living, self-employment and development
of the society. It equips individuals to attain and live a useful and
satisfying life.
Home

Economics

Education

is

self-reliant

and

contributes

immensely to national development (Olaitan, 1996). Home


Economics Education is that aspect of the total education
programme that provides the knowledge, skills, understanding
and attitude needed to perform in the business world as a
producer or consumer of goods and services that business offers.
Home Economics Education prepares students for the acquisition
and development of skills and competencies, attitude and
attributes which are necessary for efficiency of the economic
system. It makes people to be job producers rather than job
seekers (Audu and Abdulkadir, 2009).

Home Economics Education contributes in some measures to the


objective of self-realization, so work offered in Home Economics
Education enable the students to improve upon their ability to
solve problems. Since a skill is necessary to be gainfully employed
and fight poverty, Home Economics Education provides such skill
for self-employment, it enables students to acquire skills,
knowledge and relevant attitudes necessary for self-employment
or employment in specific business environment.
To me, Home Economics Education is education for and about
skills and business with primary purpose of preparing students for
gainful employment in Home Economics occupations, which will
help in poverty reduction.

THE ROLE OF HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION IN POVERTY


REDUCTION
Home Economics Education is a conglomerate of courses that is
concerned with the acquisition development and inculcation of
proper values for the survival of the individual, the family and the
society. Every individual aims at improving his economic status by
engaging in self-sustaining activities that are meant to uplift him
to a higher level and remove him from poverty.
The basic mission of Home Economics Education is helping
individuals and families to improve their lives through:
Training for necessary manpower in entrepreneurship.
Development of improved skills, competencies, capabilities
and utilization of workers employed in government and
private sectors.
Training and imparts of necessary skills to individuals who
shall be self reliant economically.
Provision of technical knowledge and vocational skills
necessary for economic development.
The educational goals go in line with the objectives of
Home Economics Education, which include:
Empowering the individual with desirable skills knowledge
and value to perform specific functions so as to become selfreliant.
Helping him to appreciate the world around him and
contribute maximally to the social and economic
development of the nation.

Empowering the individual in such a way that the individual


will develop his intellectual capacity that would help him to
make meaningful decisions in all spheres of life.
Helping the individual to become a judicious spender and
develop proper values for the achievement of healthy living
and growth of the nation.
The recipient of Home Economics Education is expected to
have acquired basic expertise in a particular branch in
which he shows special aptitude and interest.
Home Economics Education prepares one for wage earning or for
proper use of hands and head to earn a living using necessary
vocational skills and ethics. It prepares one for survival as one can
always fall back to the skills acquired in the course in times of
emergency such as retrenchment. Home Economics Education is
a means of reducing poverty in that it helps one to live happily in
the environment by learning how to use the goods and services
available to the family and by promoting sound attitude and
adapting easily to newer technological developments.
Graduates of Home Economics Education may establish in
any of the following areas:
Clothing and Textiles: The following jobs are open to
clothing and textiles major:
-

Fashion designing.
Clothing maintenance.
Laundry services.
Tie-dying and batik.
Textiles and clothing merchandise.
Pattern illustrator

- Craft work.
Food and nutrition related jobs are:
-

Catering and hotel management.


Opening snack centre or restaurant
Baking.
Food processing and preservation.

Child development and family relations: People majoring


in this area can work at any of these:
- Nursery as a school director.
- Proprietors of a private primary or secondary school
- Director of social/welfare centre.
Home Management: Careers in Home Management
include:
-

Interior decorations.
Day care and nursery management.
Managing old peoples home.
Vegetable and flower gardening
Extension worker.
Institutional home keepers.

Home Economics Education is a means of acquiring


entrepreneurial skills and knowledge which will afford the
recipients wide saleable opportunities needed to mobilize
available resources to meet the desired self-employment. The
wide employment opportunities as identified makes it the only
option which can bring respite for the pathetic situation of
unemployment thereby reducing poverty through its credible
skills acquisition programme in Nigeria.

Factors that can Hinder Effective Teaching of Home


Economics Education for Skills Acquisition and Poverty
Reduction.
The following factors according to Njoku (2002) can hinder the
teaching of Home Economics Education for functionality and
poverty alleviation:
Lack of political will by government to put in place policies
and programmes that will promote Home Economics
Education.
Inadequate supply of equipment and instructional materials.
Inadequate funding for meaningful technological
breakthrough.
Shortage of Home Economics Education teaching materials
such as current textbooks and journals.
inadequate security and maintenance of equipment
Poor societal perception of Home Economics Education.

Conclusion
Promoting Home Economics Education is necessary for Nigeria to
get out of the current global financial crisis. That is, why this
write-up tried to bring to lime light government policy initiatives
for poverty reduction, Home Economics Education and poverty
reduction, the role of Home Economics Education in poverty
reduction, factors that can hinder effective teaching of Home
Economics Education for skill acquisition and poverty reduction
and recommended ways of promoting Home Economics Education
for poverty reduction in Nigeria.

REFERENCE
1. Poverty. Merriam - Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 2013-1118.
2. "Measuring Inequality". The World Bank Reform. 2011.
3. "Poverty and Equity - Nigeria, 2010 World Bank Country
Profile". http://www.worldbank.org/nigeria
4. Raphael, Dennis (June 2009. Poverty, Human Development,
and Health in Africa: Research, Practice, and Advocacy
Dilemmas). Canadian Journal of Nursing Research
1. strategies for reducing economic poverty through home
www.scholarsworks.com Chinwendu Igbaji
2. PROMOTING HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION FOR ECONOMIC
GROWTH ...Global academic group 2001
3. the challenges of reducing poverty in Nigeria Global ...education for sustainable development Nwakego
Molokwu 2001

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