EXISTENTIALISM: A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION FOR POVERTY ERADICATION

Against the background of various national measures against poverty, it is evident that we speak of "Poverty Alleviation" or "Poverty Eradication", without tackling capitalism either as an economic system; or an ideology. Capitalism breeds two classes; the "poor" and the "rich" or the "HAVE" and "HAVE NOT". In an ideal democracy the government must address the economic and social conditions of the people; and link it with the educational system. But unfortunately, we have confused economic development with economic growth; and human development with material well-being i.e. The contradiction and dichotomy between :BE1NG" and :HAVING" i.e. existential having and characterological having. Human development must be predicated on a philosophy of man; and authentic definition of his basic needs of existence; and a guarantee of other life sustaining services. With "existentialist education". ,the poor will be gainfully employed; raise productivity and income; acquire skills; and able to access these existential basis needs; and enjoy the dividends of democracy. Introduction No serious analysis of society can neglect the dialectical connection between the economy and society. In this paper, the political economy approach is adopted in explaining the phenomenon of poverty. The political economy approach is important because it focuses on the primacy of the material conditions of the people. But, in terms of orientation, two major factors make it very important. First, political economy approach to the analysis of the society emphasizes the dynamic character of social reality. Second, it assumes the relatedness of the different and complex elements of society. It therefore, encourages the researcher to view the society as a complex unit whose elements are characterized by movement and dynamism. This is explained in terms of the contradictions which characterize social existence; including especially the relationship and interactions between social classes, which it is assumed constitute the basic building block of the society (Sabine, )973). In addition this approach enables the analyst to take account systematically of the interactions of different elements of social life. It takes as relevant not only the political structure but also the social structure, the belief system, and above all, the economic structure as a basis for understanding society. Our presentation reflects the continuing intimacy between economics and other facets of our existence in the search of a more meaningful definition of life. The problem of poverty and the need for its eradication as a means of improving the standard of living of Nigerians has led to the establishment of various institutions and programmes in the past. For example, in the year 2000, we had "Poverty Alleviation Programme' (PAP), in the year 2001 we have "Poverty Eradication Programme"(PEP). Poverty eradication is a broad spectrum activity, and therefore must cover the totality of human existence. Some of the popular approaches adopted for poverty eradication are (a) the basic needs approach and (b) the integrated rural development approach. The focus of this work is on the basic needs of the people with special reference to education. This is to highlight the general consensus reached by educationists, curriculum experts, philosophers and economists all over the world that the general purpose and objectives of education must be dependent on the purposes of human life and human existence. This is however further anchored upon a philosophy of man. What is the purpose of man in this world? What must he strive for? Therefore, a proper understanding of man, and his destiny, is imperative since the needs of every being is the direct out growth of the nature of that particular being (Odunusi,2000). Although the specific needs of individuals may differ, but some are basic lo all human beings which are essential for them to function properly well within their society and the world. These needs include food, shelter, water, health, education. Love etc. This argument is further pursued in the philosophy of Existentialism and Existentialist Education Programme and conditionalities for Poverty Eradication in Nigeria. A Philosophical Analysis of the concept of Poverty Poverty is an existential condition of involuntary deprivation by a person, household, community, or nation. The word existential is important because it shows that poverty is rooted in man's nature and conditions of human existence. Thus philosophy is most helpful here than economics in understanding human nature; for it alone more than any other discipline has answers to these questions of human existence. Human nature and existential conditions are categorized into two (a) man's essence and (b) existence; or again classified into the modes of human existence as (a) Being and (b) Having (Fromm, 1976). The objective of this part is to introduce the vocabulary and concepts of poverty definition and measurement as it a fleets the problem of its eradication in Nigeria. Poverty is usually defined in two broad senses (a) the absolute and (b) the relative sense (World Bank, 1996). a) Absolute Poverty:This is a situation where a population or section of the people is unable to meet its bare subsistence essentials of food, water, housing, clothing, Medicare etc in order lo maintain minimum standard of living. But in order to understand this concept and appreciate its import we must have a yard stick to assess living standards so as to determine who is POOR and who is NOT. This effort led to the theory of poverty line based on the level of per capita income or consumption of individuals or households in a region or country (Balogun, 1999). This is usually defined as the cut off living standard level below which a person is classified as POOR i.e. counting the people whose income is below the line. But many economists and philosophers argued that income and consumption alone are insufficient to explain The totality of human conditions of existence. Today, poverty is defined to include other variables such as access to clean water, education, life expectancy, social welfare, social justice etc. (Oladunni, 1999). A condition of poverty can be recognized as so described as absolute if the consumption of an individual or house-hold is below' an acceptable minimum fixed overtime as a global standard for meaningful human existence, known as the poverty line (Balogun, (999). And the condition can be described as poor if per capital income and consumption of the individual is below US$370; or very poor if it is below US$275. b) Relative Poverty: This refers to a person or household whose provision with goods is lower than that of other persons or households (Ukpong, 1999). c) The Poverty Line: This means the value of income or consumption necessary for (a) the minimum standard of nutrition and (b) other necessities of existence. The poverty line is then the cut-off living standard and level below which a person is classified as poor. i.e. those whose income is below the line (World Bank, 1993). Consequently, the simplest definition of poverty means "not having enough" to eat, poor drinking water, poor sanitation, nutrition, high infant mortality rates, low educational opportunities, and many others (Oladunni, 1999). Apart from absolute and relative poverty the United Nations in 1999, introduced the Human Development Index (HD1) to measure a country's socio-economic conditions such as life expectancy, access to education, shelter, electricity, potable water etc. Based on these indicators the HDI is computed for a specific welfare and expressed as a value of between O and I. Thus a country with Human Development Index below 0.5 have low HD1. A country with between 0.5 and 0.8 have medium ! L)I, while a country with HDI above 0.8 have high level HDI. The Human Development Index approach (HDI) is a simple average of three relative deprivation indices, viz, longevity, represented by life expectancy; knowledge, which is a weighted average of literacy rates and mean years of schooling index; and income; which is computed using per capita income data. In the education sector poverty indicators are net primary school enrolment including literacy rates, completion rates, student -teacher ratio, drop-out rates, student per school, public expenditure and trend for education. In the Nigerian context, those classified as "poor" include the households below income poverty-line; those lacking access to basic economic and social services; the rural dwellers; the unemployed amongst others. Today, Nigeria is ranked among the "poorest" nations in the world. Our national minimum wage is seven thousand five hundred (N7,500.00) Naira per month, a wage certainly below poverty line. Also available data show that 47.5% of our population are illiterate, the bulk of this percentage is made up of women (Human Development Report for Nigeria, 1999). The general objective of poverty eradication through education is to empower the poor because "education reduces the chances of being poor" and lack of education on the other hand increases the chances of being poor (FOS. 1999). Theories of Poverty Different theories may be used to explain poverty, but for our purposes the relevant ones are (a) the power theory of poverty, which maintains the political economy view point that the structure of political power in a given society accounts for the extent and distribution of poverty. If the ruling class establishes and legitimizes an exploitative poverty system through which it determines the allocation of opportunities, incomes and wealth, relying on the use of state power to its advantage (Akeredolu 'Ale 1975. Mackenzie, 1978). (b) The next is the capitalist entrepreneurial theory, which insist that the crude exploitation of workers, through low wages and poor conditions of service is the cause for the pauperization of the working class, (c) Following this is the individual attri