Integrated Education: An Instrument for Resolving Ife-Modakeke Conflict in Osun State, Nigeria.

Ife and Modakeke communities in Southwestern Nigeria have engaged in protracted communal violence. The conflict has grown and matured to the extent that it is no longer a physical battle alone. Its psychological dimension has reached the extent that both parties are in cold war. Efforts of informal social networks and formal community institutions put in place to address the conflict have not produced lasting peace. Education is an instrument of achieving social change by identifying sources of conflict and resolving them. Thus, this paper examines the intensity of the crisis, strategies to curb the violence and why these strategies have failed. It therefore proposes an integrated education premised on contact theory to resolve Ife-Modakeke conflict. It is argued that integrated school as it operates in USA, Northern Ireland, and Israel is a peace initiative. It involves educating children from communities that have suffered from prolonged communal conflict in an integrated school environment to enhance better cross-community relations. It therefore concludes that contact between communities within an educational setting would reduce intolerant attitudes and lead to better intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]