WHILE reading The Guardian newspaper of Saturday, 26th October, 2024, I was very happy to learn about the rollout of a new basic education curriculum which is coming soon. What made me so happy about this news piece is that I learnt that some new vocational subjects will be incorporated into the new basic education curriculum. This is indeed a very welcome development! In a country like Nigeria where formal employment opportunities are limited, fostering entrepreneurial mindset through the incorporation of vocational education and training into the school curriculum can ultimately serve to create a more self-sufficient workforce and reduce dependency on government jobs.
Incorporating vocational subjects into our education curriculum helps to equip students with essential skills that can help them to become more creative, innovative, and practical-oriented in their learning and endeavours. This can help them to not only thrive in the job market but also emerge as employers of labour, thereby contributing to the reduction of the rate of unemployment and in effect, poverty in Nigeria. The inability of our educational system to provide youths with the demands of industries has led to increased frustrations.
The learning and teaching that takes place in Nigerian schools, even at the basic education level, must look beyond simply promoting literacy and numeracy. Vocational education and training needs to be given serious attention, too. For example, currently in many primary school.