People, Planet and Prosperity: A Critical Analysis of Unesco’s SDG4 through the Lens of Transformations in Igbo and Yoruba Apprenticeship Systems

This paper considers UNESCO’s SDG4 which is a plan of action for the people, planet and prosperity. In many countries that make up Sub-Saharan Africa, Western education is considered key in ensuring generations are pulled out of poverty and into prosperity. However, as this paper argues, the curriculum which shapes this prosperity does not teach its learners aspects of the self, the environment and its conservation. This disconnect can be traced to factors such as African government attitude to the enactment of indigenous language policies, and the inability of educational institutions to integrate unique aspects of culture, history and environment into their curricula. To further expatiate on this, the paper uses the case study of Igbo and Yoruba apprenticeship systems indigenously developed in Nigeria and passed from one generation to the next. The paper traces major milestones of transformations and argues that with each milestone, the indigenous apprenticeship systems lost their ability to connect their apprentices with their environment and the values nature connotes. Thus, definitions of who they are and what prosperity means were negatively altered and consumed by values of capitalism and individualism. This alteration has not only resulted in disconnections of people’s prosperity with their environment (planet) but also their sense of who they are as national citizens and their roles as global citizens.