At the third edition of Eduskill Fair organized by International Educational Management Network (IEDUMAN), stakeholders in the education sector renewed calls for reintroduction, reinforcement and prioritization of vocation skills in the Nigerian education system as a way of broadening job opportunities and upgrading the country’s education to meet the 21st century demands and as a way of growing the country’s economy.
The occasion held at Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos on Friday, May 31, 2019. Themed “Unleashing Nigeria’s Human and Social Capital,” the annual event which seeks to promote ingenuity, creativity and skills acquisition through fair and exhibition, had in attendance university scholars, practitioners and entrepreneurs, with over 40 exhibitors in attendance, making it the largest convergence and exhibition by vocational education practitioners and entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
The convener, Dr Onyeka Javibo-Ojigbo, stresses the importance of vocational training in schools and its potential for wealth creation in the country.
“Eduskill is our own way of lending our voices that there is more to education than just theories,” Javibo-Ojigbo declares, “if you add vocation to education it will make everything easier for both the nation and the people.”
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She adds: “We are tired of seeing people go to schools, acquire certificate but find it difficult to get a job because everybody is looking for a white collar job, because if people understand the place of skills, the value of vocation, at least they could do something and combine their education with existing skills and they can do something for themselves.”
Chairman of the fair, Mrs Bunmi Omeke who avers that “skill is part and parcel of education,” also harps on the urgent need to ensure that the nation’s graduates become self-reliant “rather than depend on the ready-made job.”
Omeke, principal partner, JGC Partners and co-founder, GETWORK Nigeria observes: “Nowadays, we need to retrain our graduates to help them meet up with the demands of the labour market, whereas this is what they should have learnt in school.”
There has been a strident about the decline in the standard of education over the years. The situation is further exacerbated by the poor quality of graduates churned out by the universities. The situation becomes alarming with surging unemployment in the last two decades. As to the source of the malaise in the Nigerian education system, Prof Onuka, opines that it is not so much a policy somersault problem as it is due to the general lack of continuity in governance in the country.
Onuka, a Professor of Education Evaluation, University of Ibadan, says: “It does not matter which party is in power; look at when PDP succeeded itself three times, they were changing their programme one after the other, even Jonathan that was part of Yar’Adua changed from seven-point agenda to transformation agenda and so on; that is a problem if you don’t sustain anything. Even the 6-3-3-4 educational system, Babangida whose government brought it to bear really didn’t sustain it.”
He goes further: “I can remember that I participated in getting technical equipment for technical education at the JSS level. In many instances, they brought all of these, distributed to schools, but there was no installation. You need power and buildings to install all these things. All of that is dead today. We have JSS that is not talking about technical education, let alone talk of vocational schools; you go to technical school and you don’t have the equipment. It is not the system that is wrong––it is we that are not doing what we are supposed to do as Nigerians.”
Mrs Yetunde Ajibade, a director at Lekki-based Belleza Bambini, also avows that there is no problem with the nation’s educational curriculum, pointing out that the problem has to do with the implementers.
“Our problem is not the policy but the system saddled with the responsibilities of making the policy to work,” she says. “We have it all but I guess some don’t even know what it is all about.
The instructors themselves need to know the value of vocational studies, only then will they be able to pass it on to the students.”
Javibo-Ojigbo also agrees that the problem is largely a matter of implementation. “If we are doing the 6334 system it is already established that when you do the junior school; if you cannot go further by intelligence, then you could go for technical education but that is not being enforced,” she says.
Continuing, she says: “We are saying we already have this system, let us implement it. My advice is that government should have monitoring in all they do. The laws are there; the curriculum is there. We should enforce these things. That is on the government side. On the other hand, we also encourage individuals, to also be proactive. We can’t all sit down and fold our hands.”
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As a path to progress, Ajibade advocates prioritization of skill acquisition right from home. “Parents should let their children understand the principles of innovation and creativity. The children should build on their talents,” she submits.
Prof. Adams Onuka calls for a change of orientation. “There are people who work and the works are thriving on their own and they are still looking for government’s employment, and the person says they are looking for a steady source of income. This is the problem, we have an orientation that unless we are working for the government or for company, we are not recognized.”
He urges people to look away from white-collar jobs or government offices, avowing that such an orientation cannot bring prosperity to the country. “We need people who are creative and innovative, this is what the developed countries have tried and it worked for them,” he reflects.
In making a case for a national rethink, Onuka makes a passionate and thought-provoking appeal: “We are impatient in this country. And we are selfish. We want an easy way of making money. It is the same thing with education because when you are planning education, you have to invest in it––we are not investing in education as a nation.