The Role of Adult Education in Sustaining Cities and Communities in Nigeria: Impact of Fourth Industrial Revolution

This is an era of technological advancement. New things are springing up daily that needs to be supported with innovative ideas and creativity. Any state that is contented with the status quo is not bound to develop. For rapid development to take place in cities and communities, there is need for a level of disruption. This is the basis and core of the fourth industrial revolution. This paper is based on the fact that every country of the world needs to imbibe the idea of the newest technology with a view to attending to the various challenges facing development especially in Nigerian cities and communities. The challenge of not moving along the newest technological innovations had always led to difficulties in fixing socio-economic problems which eventually inhibit the rate of development in cities and communities and individuals within them. The fourth industrial revolution is not limited to just a group of young people but also adults. Adults should be carried along in the newest technological evolvement through all the laudable programmes of adult education. Technology stimulates creativity which brings about innovation. The fourth industrial revolution which is a combination of earlier technological inventions and revolutions would lead to stimulation of better creativity for sustainable development of cities and communities and of the people. This paper, thus, focused on how integrating technological innovation of the 21st century into adult education programmes would stimulate creativity in community people thereby leading to creativity, innovations and subsequently sustainability of cities and communities. The authors recommend among others that the Federal Government of Nigeria should focus more on adult education which has immediate relevance to the growth of persons, cities and communities in Nigeria. It is also recommended that technological education should be introduced into all programmes of adult education and efforts should be made to remove every hindrance to technical education from every adult learner and education should be made accessible to all while the curriculum of both the formal and adult education programmes should be replete with elements of the fourth industrial revolution so that none will be left out of the new development agenda.