Tens of
thousands of Nigerian students may spend extra year in specialized institutions
after graduation to make them employable.
The Minister
of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, put forward the proposal at the
ongoing Retreat for Governing Councils of Nigerian Federal Universities,
organized by the National Universities Commission (NUC) with the theme,
“Elements of Statutory Governance, Procurement and Financial Accounting in
Nigerian Universities.”
He said the suggestion
was being made because many university graduates were not good enough to be
employed by industries.
“Law
students attend Law School for one year before going for NYSC and medical
students go for one year Houseman ship before they are allowed to practice
fully, so it will be necessary for other courses to also go through this
process,” Mr Anwukah said.
“The Lagos
Business School can also serve as a one year after-school training,” he added.
“The
universities are producing products that are not matching the needs of the
industries. I urged the Committee of Pro-chancellors and Committee of
Vice-Chancellor to end the decline in the standard of education,” he said.
“The SIWES
projects introduced for a year industrial attachment for students has failed in
the universities. It is not doing its role in bridging the gap between the
universities and the industries,” he said.
He said that
re-schooling would serve as a training ground for graduates to be well equipped
on the rudiments of the course studied.
In his
address, the Chairman of NUC board, Prof. Ayo Banjo, said the quality of
Nigerian universities product failed due to poor quality research, saying, a
graduate who cannot think properly is unworthy of the certification.
While
calling for adequate funding to enable the universities fulfil its mandate, he
said the presence of government subventions must be felt and visible in the
Nigerian universities to meet and achieve excellence.
Prof Banjo,
however urged the Nigerian varsities to open their doors to West African
students to help them boost their revenue and also consider additional reform
of the curriculum to help produce excellent graduates.
The
Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed said the fundamental
problems facing the university system are poor leadership, general
underperformance and inadequate teaching and learning environment.
He said the
consequence of poor leadership had undermined the capacity of universities in
achieving its mandate.
According to
him, the NUC in collaboration with CPC and CVC decided to organise the retreat
for the governing council of all 42 federal universities to provide solutions
to the problems confronting the universities system.
He therefore
urged participants to remain focus in the deliberations and better equip
themselves with proper leadership to move the universities forward.
We’re trying
to sell an idea - Prof Anwukah
Contacted by
Daily Trust to throw more light on the proposal, the minister said: “We are
trying to sell an idea, the proposal is to get into our university system the
re-schooling concept, that is you finish your university degree may be add one
more year as a finishing school project, I don’t know how it is going to sell
... but the idea has come as a result of the failure of SIWES system in the
universities.
“We try to
address the relationship between the universities, the industries and the
graduates, how they can fit in and we introduced the SIWES project and it is
not working and it is not providing that bridge between the industries because
the most industries are unwilling to accept most students on the SIWES
programme.
“We want to
brainstorm and see whether we can add one additional year so that when a
student finishes from the university he can now go out to industries for one
year internship for that job. For instance, the law department had one extra
year after the law programme they go to law school, doctors go for one
additional year.
“Are we
going to continue with the SIWESS experiment which is not working or we are
going to brace up to introduce an additional year of re-school whereby you
spend that one year in any industry.
For
instance, the Lagos Business School can serve as one year learning experience
for students in business, accountancy and others, the NTA school in Jos can
handle that of journalists
Experts’
reaction
Professor of
Developmental Education, University of Abuja, Prof Salisu Ingawa said that is
not the solution and it may never work.
“Who is
going to do it, it is capital intensive, how long will it take to come to
practice? So all these graduates will be waiting till such institutions are set
so that they can get employed,” he said.
He pointed
out that the proposed Technology Village which has not been developed should
have been able to address such challenge.
“That is why
the industries are crying out that graduates of Nigeria are of no value to them
because when they employ them they have to retrain them at a very high cost.
He noted
that the synergy between the producers of manpower and the end users is not
there, saying, “even if they send them for that one year, who will make the
input of the content of what these graduates will be doing in the institutions
or whatever he calls it, and who is going to pay for the services there, is it
the employer?”
According to
him, over 50 per cent of the graduates are employed by the public sector,
adding that it.
“It should
be the smallest sector, ie the private sector is the largest employer but in
Nigeria the private sector is narrowing by the day because the ease of doing
business in Nigeria is very difficult.”
He however
said the immediate solution is partnership with the industries which is the end
user.
He called
for review of curriculum of universities because knowledge is dynamic and
changing by seconds.
A professor
of communication at Bayero University Kano, (BUK) Prof Umaru Pate said it might
be difficult but that, it is ideal but the implementation is going to be
problematic.
Prof Pate
said the industries to absolve the graduate when they come may not be readily
available and that could mean that the candidates would have to line up for
them to be absolved.
He said:
“The availability of the supervisors to be taken to the industries is yet
another issue and who will pay for their participation in the system because
right now some SIWES that some of the departments participate in are
experiencing some challenges or do you expect the students to also raise the
money or the government to start another NYSC, so the issue of finance is a
problem."
On the solution
, he said one probable way of doing it is to encourage the various departments
especially those professionally inclined to strengthen their industrial
attachment and that could mean separating the attachment maybe from 100 level
to say 300 level to spend three months in the industry and the rest of the
period in the school.
The Dean,
Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Prof
Nasiru Idris said the proposal is not something new.
“You may
wish to know that, already Environmental courses, engineering courses, medical
courses are all running five year programmes and also, all courses in the
Universities of Technology in Nigeria are 5 years programmes and the reason for
this is to compliment theories with practice,” he said.
“In
developed countries, degree programs are 3 years and they produce the best with
no even the so called industrial attachment. Furthermore, government should
declare state of emergency in the education sector.” he added.
https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/amplite/minister-wants-one-year-reschooling-for-graduates.html
Re: Ministry
Of Education Considering Adding An Extra Year To University Studies by
Jochabed(f): 9:42am
You must be
kidding. When others are reducing the years,you are thinking of adding it.
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Re: Ministry
Of Education Considering Adding An Extra Year To University Studies by
HigherEd: 9:43am
Now I'm
thoroughly convinced that Nigeria is governed by incredibly stupid people.
If this is
what so called professors can come up with then I'm truly concerned for
Nigeria. Everyone with half a brain ought to know that the problem of higher
education in Nigeria is the issue of non functional universities as a result of
poor funding and retrogressive lecturers. Instead of talking about equipping
laboratories, creating tech clusters, university research park, improving
knowledge transfer and pedagogy, reducing class sizes these mumu people are
trying to add another useless year to an already useless four of five years.
For a
university to produce industry - relevant graduates, the university itself has
to be industry relevant. And that relevance can only come as a by product of
heavy investment in research. You can add 20 years to the current setting and
would still achieve nothing.
The irony is
that these wehreys have their children in foreign countries where they complete
academic curriculums in 3 years for BSc and 1 year for MSc yet more industry
relevant than the ones in Nigeria spending close to 8 years achieving a BSC and
MSC...
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