Values Education: A Panacea for Social Reforms in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper attempted to establish values education as a panacea for social reforms in Nigeria. It held that values are principles that act as guidelines of our lives and that education serves as a major instrument for social reforms and together, “values education” plays a major role in the nation's bid to attain social reforms. It further listed some social issues and problems that have bedevilled the society, and the need to teach values education as a means for social reform listing its benefits, and that values education enlightens the youths, opens them to the world of opportunities to modify their disposition to life, and enables them to choose the right values based on sound reasoning where individuals and groups will shun violence and embrace togetherness and peaceful co-existence that values education ascribes to its beneficiaries. The author maintained that in the bid to achieve reforms in Nigeria, the knowledge of values education is a key instrument for such reforms, as this will inculcate in the citizenry, truth, moral values and ethics, justice and fair-play, honesty, patience, selflessness, integrity, etc. for the development of a better nation where citizens will live by morality and ethics developed in schools with a solid foundation built by families. The paper thus recommended among other things the need to sensitise the public on the usefulness of values education.