Civic education: Meaning, importance, components (2022)

What does the term “civic education” mean? It is a public, socially-focused system of ongoing education and raising designed to foster civic competency, democratic culture, and socialization requirements in the service of the person, civil society, and the rule of law. Find out what role it plays in contemporary Nigerian society.

What are the main objectives of civic education? Read on to find out.Information Guide Nigeria

What is civic education?

Apart from the definition above, civic education can also be defined as the provision of information and learning experiences to equip and empower citizens to participate in democratic processes.

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Main goals of civic education

Civic education’s primary objective can be viewed as the development of civil qualities based on new knowledge, skills, and values that assist people in solving new problems, adapting to shifting socioeconomic and political conditions, standing up for and defending their rights and interests, and respecting the rights and interests of others.

What are the components of civic education?

The main components of civic education are:

1. Human rights education.
2. Teaching a culture of peace.
3. Education of tolerance.
4. Development of intersectoral social partnerships.
5. Management of self-governing associations of citizens.NYSC Portal

The major groups in the society that civic education is largely targeted at and focused on can be identified as:

• schoolchildren and students;
• teachers;
• military and security forces;
• state and municipal employees;
• NGO activists;
• prisoners and other risk groups;
• pensioners and older people.

What is civic education and its importance in Nigeria

What role does civic education play in Nigerian classrooms? The primary goal of civic education is to prepare students for the future by teaching the nation’s future citizens. Sincere attempts have been made by many teachers to introduce school subjects that will aid in the young people’s development of self-management and other life skills that will assist prepare them for the future.NYSC Portal

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Why do we study civic education?

The purpose of each state civic program should be the creation of an effective system of ethical and legal education that would contribute to:

• the formation and development of humanistic personal orientations;
• the formation of legal and political culture among schoolchildren;
• the development of their democratic way of thinking and the acquisition of a complex ethical, legal and political knowledge, skills and abilities and the experience that young people need to integrate into a democratic society, for their active participation in the social life of the country and the protection of the rule of law.

Implementation of this system must be facilitated by the creation of a holistic educational and methodical complex.

Today, the following components of the system of civic education in the school are distinguished:

1. Ethical and legal education.
2. Mastering skills and abilities to assert active citizenship.
3. Social practice.

The Council of Europe, whose duties include guiding the next generation toward democratic citizenship based on the primacy of human rights, actively supports work in this direction.NYSC Portal

This job is related to the education of the teachers themselves, which is why a vast network of teacher organizations, including those involved in the system of retraining secondary school teachers, is gradually emerging in our nation.

Let’s propose the concept of establishing a non-governmental, non-profit society for public pedagogy that would bring together everyone engaged in the growth of civic education in Nigeria. Such an association’s primary goals should be:

1. Information, scientific, methodological, and organizational assistance to teachers, educators, scientists, and journalists working in the field of civic education and youth education.
2. Publication of scientific, educational, methodical, and popular literature on issues of civic education.
3. Assistance to teachers in the development and implementation of promising educational projects.
4. The study and generalization of domestic and world experience in the education of youth in the spirit of democracy, freedom and human rights.Jamb Portal
5. Assistance in international cooperation of teachers.

If such an organization were to be established in Nigeria, it should work to further the development of democratic processes in the educational system, primarily through fostering a democratic culture in schools and sharing this knowledge with other institutions of learning.

There are undoubtedly more target audiences than just students and teachers. But keep in mind that this audience will be much more motivated to succeed in their studies, so the effectiveness of civic education in such a situation would be much higher because it is simpler to raise a democratic people than to attempt to overturn the deeply ingrained norms of earlier generations.Jamb Portal

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Frequently Asked Questions

In this section, we answer some of the most commonly asked questions on this topic.

1. What is orderliness in civic education?

Orderliness is the quality or habit of appreciating and systematic way with the aim of achieving set goals. It is the condition where things follow laid down procedures or are properly arranged.

Six ways of exhibiting orderliness in the society include:

• Decorum in habits, relations, actions, programs at the bus stop.
• Queuing culture by obeying rules that promote orderliness like queuing at the ATM points.
• Obeying traffic regulations or rules when driving.
• Listening skills and politeness in the public.
• Tolerance of oppositions i.e, tolerating opposing views, religions and social critics.
• Due process and justice; allowing thing to follow their proper order.

2. What is cultism in civic education?

Cultism is a form of organization whose activities are not only exclusively kept away from the knowledge of others but such activities are carried out at odd hours of the day and they often clash with the accepted norms and values of everyday life.waec result

3. What is value in civic education?

Value is the esteemed quality in which a person attaches to certain ideas, beliefs or principles.

Positive values include gratitude, truth-telling, hard work, and obedience while examples of negative values are anger, pride, laziness, discrimination, lust, and gluttony.

4. What are civic dispositions?

Civic dispositions are defined as the citizen traits necessary for democracy (e.g. tolerance, public-spiritedness, civility, critical mindedness and willingness to listen, negotiate, and compromise).

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5. What are civic skills?waec result

Civic skills refer to citizens’ ability to analyze, evaluate, take and defend positions on public issues, and to use their knowledge to participate in civic and political processes (e.g. to monitor government performance, or mobilize other citizens around particular issues).

7. What are the promising approaches to civic education?

For this type of learning to be effective, schools should do the following:

• Encourage student participation in school governance.
• Provide instruction in government, history, law, and democracy.
• Incorporate discussion of current local, national, and international issues and events into the classroom, particularly those that young people view as important to their lives.
• Encourage students’ participation in simulations of democratic processes and procedures.
• Design and implement programs that provide students with the opportunity to apply what they learn.
• Offer extracurricular activities that provide opportunities for young people to get involved in their schools or communities.

8. What are the advantages of civic education?

Here are some of its benefits:

• Strengthens the basic understanding of our structures of government, along with related processes of legislation and policy making
• Creates a positive school climate that supports students feeling socially, emotionally and physically safe.
• Lowers high school dropout rates.
• Improves government transparency.
• Enhances “21st century competencies” that are valued by colleges, universities and employers.
• Increases voting and discussions of politics in the home.
• Enhances democratic accountability of elected officials.waec result

9. What are the disadvantages of civic education?

• It could be taught by biased people who are pushing you to advocate their own self-interested agenda.
• It occupies your time, preventing you from focusing on other things that may be more important in your life.
• It may sway you towards caring too much about the government and too little about your independent activities unrelated to government.

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9. What is Civic Education: What Makes Students Learn?

The book was written by Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn and was released by Yale University Press in 2005. The book offers information about the political and governmental knowledge that American high school students possess as well as their sources of knowledge.

The participation of citizens in democratic and development processes is facilitated through civic education, which is a crucial and useful tool. Citizens can use this tool to speak up for themselves and within a group. Civic engagement is based on upholding both individual and community rights and ensuring that each citizen is aware of his or her duties to the society of which they are a part.

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