Security Education in Basic Schools: Implications for Community Development in Rivers State, Nigeria

Through organized curriculum and efficient teaching techniques, basic schools are vital venues for fostering security consciousness and awareness in young learners. It gives learners the values, information, and abilities needed to identify abnormal behavior, react correctly, and support harmonious communal cohabitation. This study borders on security education in basic schools and its implications for community development in Rivers State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was used in the study. The study's population is made up of 1,350 national value curriculum teachers from 268 Basic Junior Secondary Schools in Rivers State (RSUBEB, 2025).  The multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in selecting 354 teachers in urban and state's basic schools in Rivers State.  A self-developed questionnaire tagged “Security Education in Basic Schools: Implications for Community Development in Rivers State (SEBSICD)” was used for data collection. The instrument consists of 16 items on a 4-point scoring scale of: Very High Extent (VHE = 3.26-4.00) – 4, High Extent (HE= 2.51-3.25) – 3, Low Extent (LE= 1.76-2.50) – 2, Very Low Extent (VLE = 1.00-1.75) – 1. The validity of the instrument was determined by three research experts. The instrument was trial tested utilizing the test-retest approach in order to ascertain the instrument's reliability. The trial test result was analyzed using Cronbach alpha and a reliability coefficient of 0.80 was obtained. With the help of two research experts, the questionnaire was distributed and administered. Inferential statistics (mean score) was used to analyze the research questions. Finding reveals among others that the respondents unanimously agreed to a high extent that security education curriculum influences pupils’ attitudes and behaviours toward safety and community responsibility. Thus, the study concluded that security education remains a critical yet underutilised strategic instrument for strengthening national and communal security in Nigeria, particularly in Rivers State. Hence the study recommended that there should be professional training and retraining of teachers, good budgetary allocation and good remuneration for teachers of security education in basic schools.