CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Economic development and underdevelopment is one aspect of the uneven spatial distribution of economic activity. Geography has a huge impact on infrastructural development. Studies have shown that geography education has a direct effect on infrastructural development especially in developing countries such as Nigeria.

Education is an important variable in augmenting productivity of the existing and potential labour force of an economy, a catalytic agent for raising the level of income, a key to the access to resources, both private and public, and a channel of income distribution, through which gains from increased growth can be filtered down to the lower income groups. Education is regarded as a productive investment, as well as an all-pervasive activity of human welfare (Rahman and Hossain, 2006). They added that, as education is continuously developing, it becomes increasingly clear that only well-informed research may contribute to enhance our knowledge on what is happening inside the system, and thus enable decision makers to take corrective measure.

The contributions of education in achieving the modernization of the country Nigeria since the early 1960 when the country gained her independence cannot be overlooked. Recently, the interests of countries abroad have centered on the role of education in achieving the economic and infrastructural development in Nigeria. Political, social and cultural factors undoubtedly contributed to the economic growth of the country, but the effects of these factors varied between countries in both kind and weight. The country Nigeria has achieved rapid economic growth. However, it has one factor in common: namely, the important role of the educational institutions. A common basis for the economic development of Nigeria has been the introduction of a modern educational system, especially the spread of general elementary education to farm families who constituted the major part of the labour force in the beginning period of modernization. Thus, the role of modernization in achieving economic development in Nigeria may be said to have been very important.

Education in the early 16th and 17th century during the medieval era supported the foundation on which the modern Nigerian economic system was created, rather than contributing directly to economic growth. In other words, the diffusion of elementary education raised the quality of the people’s skills, modernized their thought, and made it possible for them to participate successfully in modern economic activities. Hence, the high evaluation of the role of education in achieving economic development in this country should be attributed to consumption and invest the money thus saved in education. The significance of geography education is immense not only on personal level but on a larger scale as well (Craig, 2013).

Despite the improvement in the infrastructural development of Nigeria (Asaba in particular), geography education has no doubt contributed immensely to the rapid growth, urbanization and socio-economic development of the region since the creation of Delta state in 1991 and the declaration of the region as an urban center in 2002. This rapid development in both infrastructural and basic amenities is not far from the rapid population increase of the region which Asaba a capital city have been the major push pull factor for the increase in population through migration of the people in and out of Asaba. This is true to say because the creation of Delta State which gave birth to Asaba have improved the socio-economic activities of the inhabitants through the provision of electricity, road networks, communication system, improved educational facilities, environmental facilities, housing etc through geography education knowledge. Geography education has drawn State Government attention to develop the region. Individuals, public and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have also contributed immensely to the infrastructural development of Asaba through the application of geography education knowledge and learning skill. Hence, the need for this study, to examine the effect of geography education on infrastructural development in Nigeria particularly in Asaba, Oshimili North L.G.A of Delta State and make recommendations were necessary.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Geography education is a very important discipline which incorporates two distinctive field of study into its teaching; they are education and geography. It has been discovered in repeated studies that geography education has a direct effect on the infrastructural development of any region. This is because studies have shown that as the natural geographical setting and landscape of any region is rapidly being replaced by an agglomeration and clustering of both planned and unplanned building structures, its attendant consequences are enormous. The geometric increase in population, through migration has led to appreciable disturbance in the natural ecosystem of Asaba, which in turn adversely affect the infrastructural development of Asaba.

It is apparent that in all cities experiencing rapid urbanization, there is usually problems of housing congestion, corruption, increased crime rate, social vices, prostitution, urban decay among others too numerous to mention. This is especially the case of Asaba where these negative impacts are felt on the economy of the region.

In recent times there has been a call for periodic re-examination of the urban environment of cities in other to have an update and compare the situations in these cities with that of other cities in the world. Based on these calls and with these numerous problems and the neglects associated with Asaba as an urban center, the need arises to carry-out this study in order to find out the effect of geography education on infrastructural development in Nigeria especially Asaba, Delta State.