Appraising Vocational Education

It has been observed that Nigerians are good policy makers and the least policy implementors, as it is the case with the National Policy on Education, 2004. One major problem facing educational system in Nigeria is not the type of education policy but the implementation of such policy.

The 6-3-3-4 system suffered a major setback from the implementation of the policy. For instance, the 2004 policy on education, provides for self-reliance through the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills in technical, vocational education and training and in business;  provision of adequate workshop for practical, teacher-student ratio of 1:20 for practical lessons, training and re-training of teachers to ensure well qualified manpower, more women to be encouraged to study technical and vocation education, and above all, adequate funds to be provided for technical vocational education and training.

From the policy, it is obvious that these provisions are not met since 2004 till date due to inadequate implementation, a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of  Nigerian policy makers.

Section 56 of the policy says that “Government shall provide adequate  funds for vocational and technical education. It is obvious that technical education is more expensive to provide than programmes in the humanities, which means that they have to be adequately funded by the government, but this has not been so at present. Because of the fact that the institutions are poorly resourced, the education and training remains theoretical and the graduates are not considered more skilled than their academic counterparts in the labour markets. The institutions thereby acquire a poor image and produce graduates with lower employability.

I commend the efforts of the federal and state government for their various attempts and subsequent release of funds to resource our educational institutions in the country to an extent. But one may wish to ask, with the present state and standards in our tertiary institutions or universities where the funds are going to?

In an attempt to solve the problem of utilization of funds on technical vocational education and training in Nigeria, the federal and state governments should as a matter of urgency look into the dual control system of administration in our universities. By this I mean, a situation where technical institutions should be headed, run and controlled by well qualified specialists as vice-chancellors, rectors, provosts, deans of faculty, heads of department and co-coordinators of vocational programmes.

I have observed that technical institutions headed by the experts from other fields do not progress despite the huge sum of money invested on them by the governments, because the funds are usually diverted to other areas not so important in solving the immediate needs of unemployment, instead of the development of technical sections, such as building of conducive lecture halls, offices, provision of workshops and equipment, manpower development, payment of allowances and insurance to lecturers and students about safety in workshops, promotions and increased pay to technical instructors.

More importantly, provision of adequate agricultural farms, including crop farms, fish farms, animal or livestock farm, agricultural engineering/mechanisation, business units equipped with computers, photostating machines etc; all these are for adequate training and acquisition of practical skills that will make our school graduates economically self-reliant. But the reverse will be the case, if vocational specialists are heading the institutions, because there will be more attention to be given to the technical vocational education and training.

I am advocating that the federal and state governments should separate the administration of vocational and technical education from general education to enhance rapid development and judicious utilization of funds in the area.

Obi is a student of University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Bennet Obi