The Executive Director of African Network for Peace And Good Governance, ANPG, Bede Aneke has expressed worry over poor school curriculum and called on the ministry of education to include technical and vocational education on it.
Bede Aneke who lamented that schools in Nigeria was producing unemployable youths because of poor curriculum, maintained that technical and vocational education is pivotal to eradicating poverty in Nigeria.
Aneke made this call during an event to mark the 2023 International Literacy Day by UNESCO with the theme, ‘Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies”.
He said that the list of things Nigerians learnt in secondary school that were not applicable in real life or had become totally obsolete due to advanced technology or were not as practical in real life as the teachers tried to make them believe.
Aneke, therefore, insisted that one viable way to ease the plights of vulnerable Nigerians, and eradicate poverty was to make vocational and technical education core of the nation’s curriculum.
According to him, research has shown that the rate of unemployment in East Asian countries are low mainly because the population acquired employable technical and vocational skills.
He said the demand for vocational skills was high, adding that available resources were limited and that the government and non governmental organizations (NGOs) or United Nations (UN) agencies cannot address all the needs.
He advocated surgery on the country’s education policy and embedded vocational training, as a means to curb unemployment, empower citizens towards self-reliance and achieve a viable economy.
“Countries that use vocational curriculum are Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, more than 65% of upper secondary students follow this track.
“So if the system in Nigeria is tailored towards vocational education, it will eradicate poverty in the country.
“And the government cannot claim to be fighting poverty, when the majority of its labour force(labourers) are foreigners.
“The success of vocational education in driving national prosperity can be seen also in countries like Germany and Switzerland
“Germany’s dual system of vocational education and training is highly recognized worldwide due to its combination of theory in the classroom and training in a real-life work environment. The dual system is firmly established in the German education system.
Aneke stressed that technical and vocational education highlights the application of skills, attitude and knowledge needed for employment in a given occupation or related occupations in any field of economic and social activities.
He explained that technical education is given to an individual for the purpose of making him or her to develop the innate creative potentials in him or her for personal and societal usage.
He argued that vocational education was the bedrock of Western Education in Nigeria when the first Europeans that came to Nigeria engaged the people as gardeners, carpenters, cooks, stewards, laundry men, tailors etc though it was not called vocational in those days but these trades form what we know as vocational education.
“In those days, crime rates were so minimal because people are gainfully employed.
“Providing technical and vocational education is a required intervention in the effort of empowering people and decreasing poverty.
“It is clear to see that the people, especially the younger generation, who possess skill to work can access the working market, so that the number of unemployment, poverty and other consequences from social and economic exclusion will decrease.
Aneke pointed out that the provision of technical and vocational education was a necessary intervention in attempts to empower people and reduce poverty.
This, he said, would make people, especially the youth, equipped with employable skills with which they can access labour markets, then the incidence of unemployment, poverty and other consequences of social and economic exclusion would be reduced in Nigeria.
