Article

Disarmament education: An imperative for effective management of education for sustainable development in Africa

Alimba N. Chinyere* and Awodoyin O. Francis

General Studies Unit, Federal University of Technology Yola, P. O. Box 740 Jimeta, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E -mail: chivoplc@yahoo.com. Tel: 08029452229.

Accepted 10 September, 2009

   Introduction

Africa’s educational terrain is hostile to innovative ideas that can usher in development and consequently sustain it. This idea is motivated by the fact that the death, destruction and suffering which violent conflict have imposed on the African peoples through the excessive availability and misuse of small arms and light weapons (SALW) have negatively affected the productivity of the educational system. Due to poor security network, easy accessibility, easy to hide and operate, small arms have found their ways into the educational system in Africa, increasing the rate at which crimes are perpetuated. Arm robbery, rape, cultism, intimidations and harassment of students, most especially the female ones and staff have characterized the development of higher education in the last decade in Africa. This situation, to a large extent, has affected the level at which education can contribute to the developmental needs of the African people. Therefore, to reposition the system for efficient management in order to create a safe and an orderly environment that can promote high quality academic exercises and to ensure that students and staff have the opportunity to develop themselves and contribute to the development of their societies, calls for the adoption of disarmament education. Disarmament education focuses on controlling and preventing arms from falling into illegal hands. It is a form of programme that intends to encourage people to resolve their differences peacefully without the use of arms. Hence, disarmament education can create a safe environment for people to operation peacefully in a society. Based on this, the paper examined the goals of disarmament education, the causes and effects of excess availability of arms in educational system and the link between arms proliferation, disarmament education and sustainable development. Equally, how disarmament education can contribute to effective management of education for sustainable development in Africa was equally explored.