Effect of Adult Education on Community Development Participation in Ondo State

This study examined the effect of adult education participation on community development engagement in Ondo State, South West Nigeria. Community development is increasingly understood as dependent not merely on financial resources but on the knowledge, civic engagement, and organisational capacities of community members, all of which adult education can potentially strengthen. The study adopted a descriptive survey design involving 165 adult education programme participants and community leaders drawn from three rural and peri-urban local government areas in Ondo State. Questionnaires, interview guides, and community development records were utilised. Findings demonstrated that adult education participants were significantly more likely than non-participants to contribute to community labour projects, attend community governance meetings, join cooperative organisations, and engage with government social service programmes. Literate community members took on more active roles in community development committees and were better equipped to prepare project proposals and communicate effectively with government agencies. The multiplier effect of literacy on community social cohesion was also noted, with educated adults serving as informal knowledge resources for their neighbours and households. Limitations included the inability to establish causal direction with certainty in some relationships due to the cross-sectional study design. Recommendations include reframing adult education marketing materials to explicitly emphasise community development benefits, partnering adult education providers with local government development offices, and integrating civic education components into all adult literacy and continuing education curricula in the state. Keywords: adult education, community development, civic participation, Ondo State, lifelong learning.