Community Education and Informed Participation in Community Development

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the influence of community education on participation in community development project. All the Local Government Areas of Oyo State constituted the population.  The study focused on thirteen randomly selected Local Government Areas of Oyo State.  A total number of 2,000 participants were randomly selected in the Local Government Areas under study.  The participants included Community Development Officers, Community Leaders, Adult Literacy Organizers and the beneficiaries of the Adult Literacy classes and Community Development Projects in the various centres in the selected local government areas of the state.  The study adopted a survey design. A questionnaire tagged (CEFCP) Community Education for Citizen Participation was used to elicit responses from the participants.  The data collected were analysed using chi-square statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The study established that community education helped get citizens properly sensitized and mobilized for effective participation in community development projects.  Community education is thus seen to be participatory and transformative in nature, therefore, it is a democratic process. Community education is therefore recommended to government, voluntary and donor agencies as a catalyst for participating in community development projects.