CORRUPTION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION 11 9
Keywords:
Corruption, National Development, Social Studies Education, Civic Education, Moral ValuesAbstract
Corruption has continued to pose a challenge to the development of most societies worldwide, especially in developing countries. This phenomenon retards development by hindering government action, weakening institutional effectiveness, and misapplying economic and societal development. The work analysed the association between corruption and national development, highlighting the contribution of Social Studies Education in tackling corruption as an ailment. The work defined corruption as the misuse of public power for personal gain. Forms of corruption include bribery, embezzlement, nepotism, political corruption, and electoral corruption. The social effects of corruption on development include poverty and unemployment, the lack of democratic processes, the ineffectiveness of public services, and the deterioration of morality and security. The paper sees national development as the process of attaining economic prosperity, social equality and justice, political stability and a better quality of life. Social Studies education has been presented as an interdisciplinary discipline designed to produce competent and good citizens of a nation. The paper advocates the teaching and learning of social studies to instil good behaviour, enable students to develop civic responsibility and a sense of duty, inculcate civic competence, build critical capacity and ethical attitudes towards the problem of corruption. It can be said that an efficient Social Studies Education will produce a moral society capable of solving the problem of corruption and thus pave the way for sustainable development of a nation.Downloads
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