Holistic education a panacea for sustainable education on university graduates functionality in our contemporary society

This paper examined holistic education for sustainable education on graduates’ functionality in our contemporary society. Two research questions guided the study. The population comprised of 6,000 lecturers in two universities in Abia State namely; Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU) and Abia State University Uturu (ABSU). The sample size of 600 lecturers was selected through the stratified proportionate randomly sampling technique. The researchers developed a well-structured questionnaire titled holistic education for sustainable education on graduates’ functionality in our contemporary society (HEPSEGFCSQ) to obtain data from the respondents. The questionnaire consisted of 14 item statements. Mean was used in analyzing the data for the study. The findings from this study identified the approaches of holistic education for sustainable education which are Academic discipline-based education, Civic education, Environmental education, Entrepreneurship education and so on. It also revealed the influences of such approaches for graduates’ functionality in our contemporary society, thus, Academic discipline-based education is the departmentalization of knowledge within a unique profession (occupation). Civic education helps graduates with moral values (ethics); Citizenship education (politics) and contemporary issues help in good political practice; Entrepreneurship education equips graduates with entrepreneurial skills development and management competencies needed to excel optimally in all academic discipline-based education and so on. The paper recommended among others that; holistic education nurtures the broad development of the students and focuses on their intellectual, emotional, social, physical, creative or intuitive, aesthetic and spiritual potentials. Implementing holistic education in schools requires the development of a shared vision, goals and objectives of the government, educationists and students.