RE-ENGINEERING ETHICAL AND VALUES EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

The rising decline in ethical standards and civic responsibility among secondary school students poses a significant threat to sustainable national development in Nigeria, prompting the need for urgent educational reform. This study examined re-engineering of ethical and values education as a strategic approach to fostering sustainable national development in public secondary schools in Anambra State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study focused on assessing the restructuring of moral and civic education to enhance students’ character formation, national consciousness and active citizenship in alignment with 21st-century developmental goals.Two research questions guided the study.  It was anchored on Transformational Learning Theory by Jack Mezirow. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. 139 respondents were sampled. Self-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Mean rating was used for data analysis. The findings of the study indicated that moral and civic education are being re-engineered to a very high extent in public secondary schools in Anambra State to enhance sustainable national development.The study concluded that ethical and values education, particularly through Civic Education, is being significantly re-engineered in public secondary schools in Anambra State to foster sustainable national development. Based on the findings, the study recommended that the educational policymakers should institutionalize sustained, evidencebased professional development programs for Civic Education teachers. These should focus on enhancing pedagogical competencies in moral reasoning, digital ethics and participatory civic instruction to reinforce the transformation of values education as a driver of sustainable national development.