Introduction

Education is a process that begins at birth and continues until the end of life. The early stage of life is very crucial since this period affects the following process. However, we are not able to totally control the early stage because children remain under the care of their families until they begin attending school. Even if children study in schools, many factors such as friends in and out of the school affect their educational process. The educational system focuses on children from pre-school until graduate education. Educational gains mainly shift from public to individual gains as they attend a higher level of school each year. That is why education is compulsory in the first 10 or 12 years for children. Otherwise, greater and more costly social problems would occur if we could not educate them to be good citizens. Durkheim (1956) states that “education is the influence exercised by adult generations on those that are not yet ready for social life” (p.71). In other words, the primary objective of education is to help children develop intellectual skills and improve their physical capabilities. Additionally, they should be motivated at school to acquire the moral values that are demanded by political society, because society may suffer some social problems and pay more to fix them if we do not help children achieve these objectives. Dewey (1897) believes that education functions properly when there is.

According to Bamisaiye (1989), Education is “ a cumulative process of development of intellectual abilities, Skills and attitudes, all of which form our various outlooks and dispositions to action in life generally” (p. 9) education is the pristine essence of learning which makes us permanently able and disposed to benefit ourselves and other members of the society in the use we make of such learning. Schooling may lead to negative behaviour, knowledge can be negatively used, learning too can also be negative, but education must be positive. The type of school attended do influence one’s behaviour. One can succeed in carrying out a negative, anti-social behaviour like “pen-robbery”, armed robbery, examination malpractices, raping, or activities of secret cult members in higher institutions which are acquired THE MEANING AND SCOPE OF EDUCATION 1 through negative learning, but for one’s behaviour to have educational worth, it must be positive. The various stages of learning which one goes through in school do not in themselves constitute education. However, each of the stages plays significant roles in making one educated. Education, broadly speaking consists of all the influence involved in shaping the development of an individual. The whole life of an individual is education and it ceases when one die. Education can be given at home, in school, church or mosque, community village or town. Only the literacy aspect of education is best given at school. There are many types of education, viz:- literacy education, mental education, social or moral education. Mental education is the development of a child mentally while in literacy education, the child must be able to develop a sound life. Mind and be God-fearing in all aspects of life. The educated person must adjust himself to any environment. Education is sometimes referred to as imitation in the sense that anybody that comes into society does not know the norms and the other essential things to be known in a society. The only way to do this is by imitation. Education is also the means by which we transmit culture, norms, tradition, rules from one generation to the other and this is done so that the society can continue to exist. The idea of education in any developing country which has undergone a colonial experience in terms of the transmission of culture should be different from that of a country that has not got this experience. Hence in the transmission of culture in the developing country, it must not constitute only the alien culture but also the indigenous culture. Education is being regarded therefore as a veritable tool for inculcating in the individual the skills, abilities, aptitudes, attitudes, interest, values and skills which are necessary for functioning effectively in the society. Education is also essential for salvaging virtues of all shades in a way that is beneficial to the society. It is a known fact that not all learning can be defined as education. Farrant (1982) identified three characteristics that distinguish true education from such things as role learning, purely mechanical training, indoctrination or brainwashing. According to him, true education: – Deals with knowledge that is recognisably worthwhile and capable of achieving a voluntary and committed response from the learner.