2016: Experts harp on strategic policy on entreprenuership, technology in education sector

Industry watchers in the education sector has declared that for Nigeria to attain self-reliance in the area of socio-economic development in relation with her gross domestic product and annual earnings in 2016, the policy makers in the country must look inward and direct the course of socio-economic growth and development toward technology and vocation, starting from institutions of higher learning.

In their different summations, experts maintains that the educational curriculum should be tailored in such a way that would accommodate emerging trends in sciences, technology and entrepreneurship using public-private sector model, just as they wanted good collaboration between tertiary institutions and industries, using practical-based techniques to train would-be graduates of tertiary institutions in the country.

They are of the view that a re-designing of the nation’s educational curriculum to accommodate sciences, technology and entrepreneurship in a practical form for which private sector is expected to play a major role, should be the major driver of the country’s economy.

Olusola Oyewole, vice chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) only technolrecently disclosed that tertiary institutions had not done enough in the area of collaboration with industries in terms of sciences and technology for socio-economic development.

Oyewole said that the country still lags behind socio-economically, because the policy makers had not taken in cognisance the importance of technical and vocational education in a broad form, saying tertiary institutions and government should not leave students to theoretical aspect of education alone as that could make any difference in nation building.

He recommended regular interaction between tertiary institutions, especially universities and industries to make desired socio-economic difference in the country, saying as of now “there is no good collaboration between universities and industries”, but hoped that there scenario would soon change with the way the academics’ and stakeholders’ reasoning going.

“I believe and hope that there will be a time when not only the university students will be going on attachment to the industries, even teachers should have opportunities of interacting with industries, we have also seen this as deficiency and there is need to work on that”, he declared.