The compulsory inclusion of entrepreneurship studies and skills acquisition programmes at all levels of Nigeria’s schools curricula has been identified as the only way out of the unemployment challenges currently facing the country.
A former Vice –Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure, – Professor Ilemobade made this known in a public event in Abuja.
Professor Ilemobade was reacting to the unfortunate incident where some people lost their lives, during the recruitment exercise of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS.
The university don also stressed that equipping people, especially young Nigerians to help themselves is a matter of urgency which call for the attention of stakeholders.
On the lingering industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Ilemobade appealed to the striking lecturers to think twice whenever it is making financial demands to government, citing the example of an industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU in 1992, which took much time and also failed to yield much results.
On the recent pronouncement by President Goodluck Jonathan of his willingness to support non- governmental organisations to make impacts in Nigeria’s educational system, Ilemobade said ‘prior to 1960 and even thereafter, there was what we call voluntary schools and government give them grants to help communities educate their children and this entails investing in human development’.
On the notion that most Nigeria graduates are unemployable, he said ‘the solution is to make them employable, but with the level of corruption and dilapidated infrastructure, this is hard to achieve. We have to look for a way of segmenting people looking for education. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was spending 40% of the budget on education then and people had to endure the pain, but the joy thereafter was worthwhile.
