DEWEY'S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION IN NIGERIAN SECONDARY EDUCATION SYSTEM

Education is a powerful instrument for actualizing a nation’s socio-political, economic, and cultural aspirations. The National Policy on Education 2013; provides the yardstick for assessing the nation’s provisions for emancipating its citizens from ignorance and political instability. This paper therefore, analyses Dewey’s educational philosophy vis-à-vis the Nigerian education system with a view to finding out how democratic principles reflected in Dewey’s philosophy of education can impact on the Nigerian education system. From conceptual and logical analysis of the study, the researchers explored democratic values of equal access to educational opportunities, belief in intrinsic worth and human capacity to solve social problem, freedom of individual to hold ideas, and the role of schools to contribute to social change. Furthermore, the study discovered that inadequate funding of education, poor philosophical posture and failure to implement the national policy on education can negate the realization of policy objectives. The paper concluded that Dewey’s philosophy of education can shape the Nigerian education system by entrenching democratic ideals of equal educational opportunity, learner freedom, and enhancement of individual capability to solve personal and social problems. However, issues of funding of education, implementation of educational policy and teacher training must be addressed. Based on the foregoing, the paper recommended that efforts should be made to fund education adequately, that teachers should be trained professionally, the curriculum content of education should be reviewed, and policy prescriptions should be implemented.