Extra Year For All Graduates. (Read Details)

At a recent retreat organised by the National Universities Commission (NUC) for the governing councils of federal universities, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah expressed concern over reports that many graduates being turned out by Nigerian universities were not employable. And to address that challenge, he proposed the addition of an extra year for skill acquisition for graduates before their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). But this is a proposal that makes little sense and should be discarded.

In the reasoning of Anwukah, a former university vice-chancellor, the additional year would be similar to the one-year law training programme embarked upon by law students as well as the housemanship that medical students undergo. But this idea was ill-conceived because keeping the students on campus for longer periods is not a guarantee for improved knowledge, given the operating environment. So, the challenge of the moment is not about the number of years spent in school but the quality of the education being acquired.

Indeed, there are several pertinent questions arising from this proposal but two will suffice. First, under what atmosphere would the students be trained for the extra year? Second, will the trainers be brought from abroad or would they be the same lecturers who had taught them for four or five years in the first instance? Whichever way one looks at it, the minister’s proposal amounts to attempting to cure ringworm while overlooking leprosy. Proposing an extra year for students without any plan to overhaul the entire educational system will amount to nothing but another organised waste of time.

Instead of embarking on such misadventure, the federal government should trace the root of Nigeria’s fallen standard of education and make decisive steps to revamp it. As long as the government fails to find a solution to the funding problem, create a conducive environment for learning, enhance the quality of students being admitted while engaging lecturers of high academic standards, the quality of education in Nigeria will continue to be hampered. Besides, as long as strict academic environment with sound moral values is not entrenched in the tertiary institutions, they will continue to churn out unemployable graduates.

Thisdaylive.