Universities and Polytechnics are clearly a key part of all tertiary systems, but the diverse and growing set of a public and private tertiary institutions in every country -nursing schools, research laboratories, distance learning centres and many more institutions that support production of high level capacity necessary for development.
Knowledge and advanced skills are critically determinants of a country’s growth and standard of living as learning outcomes are transformed into goods and services, greater institutional capacity, a more effective public sector, a stronger civil society, and a better investment climate.
Good quality, merit-based, equitable, efficient tertiary education and research are essential parts of this transformation. Both developing and industrialised countries benefit from the dynamics of the knowledge economy.
This was the position of the Chairman, Governing Council, Lagos City Polytechnic, Engr. Babatunde Adewale Odufuwa during its eighth convocation.
He disclosed that improved and accessible tertiary education and effective national innovation systems can help a developing country progress toward sustainable achievements of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those goals related to all levels of education, health, and gender equity.
In many countries, he noted that education is viewed as a good investment in national development as it is expected that the educational system will produce the quality and quantity of human resources required for the economic growth of the country.
Odufuwa who concurred that Nigeria’s educational sector has been consuming quite a large proportion of annual budgets of the three tiers of government budgets, added that there is need to establish and maintain standard operating criteria at all levels of the education system.
According to him, “it is now a common practice in most, if not all universities and colleges to include Entrepreneurship Study, Information Technology and other related subjects into the curriculum so that there is a linkage between the private sector and the economy which these institutions serve.
“It is also important to mention that the curricula in various countries of the world are made to reflect not only the need of each country but the requirements of global world economy through e-learning, e-commerce etc, as reflected in ICT development by the internet which has reduced the world to a global village,” he said.
Odufuwa added: “In Nigeria, we need more skills than we need certificates.”
He maintained that there is a growing disconnect between the products of our tertiary institutions and skills requirements of the economy, saying that this underscores the need for closer interaction between our institutions and operators in the economy.
”There is need to focus more on Research and Development, manufacturing and industrial growth set for exports as opposed to projects which are not employment-generating. These challenges affect our educational standard and inhibit our efforts at achieving the Vision 20: 2020,” he said, pointing out that
“our educational system must be home-made to reflect the need of our environment and learn from the mistakes of developed countries.
According to Odufuwa, our education system must produce teachers and artisans who must be well educated in the use of their skills to serve and support the graduates of engineering, medicine, arts, science and humanity.
He averred that the re-opening of training centres where artisans are trained will assist in enhancing the delivery of skills in our educational system.
He insisted that we must trae the training for these semi-skilled labours by updating their education through in-service training, industrial attachment, seminars and workshops where modern techniques and knowledge will be acquired.
“It is the entrepreneurs that make things happen in an economy. They are the drivers of the economy and the creators of wealth. An economy can only be as robust as its entrepreneurs. Therefore, if we must make progress in this economy, our private sector would have to play a major role. The public sector would also have to create the enabling environment,” he said.
On the way forward, he said: “Now literacy has gone beyond learning. Schools should be designed not only for learning but for thinking. Schools and colleges are being asked to produce men and women who can think, make new scientific discoveries, find adequate solutions to impending world problems, who cannot be brainwashed, men and women who can adapt to change and maintain sanity in this age of acceleration.
”Every individual has been endowed with the gift of creativity, innovation and imagination.
source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/need-skills-certificates-nigeria-odufuwa/
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