(This essay was written in 2013)
continuted from part 1
In over 15 years of serving humanity through
volunteering for youthful causes from educational outreach to psychosocial
health issues among youths, am a living witness to what education at whatever
level can do, and when combined with life skills training, then you are
creating a generation that would do wonders. From my activeness as a volunteer
I came into leadership position as the youth coordinator in 2002, representing
the youth on the management board of the Red Cross society in my region,
(Benue) it was in this position, that I learnt the first lesson of youth
participation, that, there is no place
for the youth in leadership, not because
we cannot lead but because the adult that failed in their youth, are afraid of
what ‘I do not know’, so for youths to earn their place at the top, they must
bring innovative ideas to the table,
this I did through an inert embodiment of a balance necessary to learn quickly and
perform exceptionally in new, challenging environments. Adding enthusiastic
desire to take any initiative and being hard working; you must learn to put
them at ease, while with you. We have to
be genuine, optimistic and have a confident personality, with well-developed
leadership skills, and have ways to engage challenges and challenge self and
others to work collaboratively and approach issues in an innovative ways; these
were the virtues that earned me a place among the ‘strong and mighty at that
level’. I
would not have done that, if I was not privileged to have gotten some form of
education and skills training.
As a youth camp director for eight years (2001-2008), I
saw, the desire among youths to educate themselves, but there was a weak system
to help them, even when they strive to attend, instructional materials are not
available, cost of education are becoming expensive, we were not discouraged,
we encouraged ourselves, those that could afford it then went ahead, others
took advantage of the public system education that are available though not
quality enough but it was affordable, while others enrolled into various skills
programme.
The Education for All Global
Monitoring Report (EFGMR) 2012 was able to give a three framework skills needed
to create a path towards productive employment, most especially for young
people because they are numerous than ever and their employment is key to the
future of the global economy. The document Next Generation Nigeria, a research
report by British Council conducted in 2010 attested to this fact that “Nigeria
stands on the threshold of what could be the greatest transformation in its
history. By 2030, it will be one of the few countries in the World that has
young workers in plentiful supply. Youth
not oil will be the country’s most valuable resource in the twenty-first century”,
this is all the reason why our educational policy must be designed to hand in
glove with relevant skills. The three framework skills are: Foundational Skills, Transferable Skills, and
Technical/Vocational Skills.
Foundational
Skills: are the first steps in
education; they are basic skills such as reading, writing and mathematics,
which can be gained in primary and lower secondary schools. These are prerequisites
for continuing in education. For those that miss out on acquiring these skills,
second-chance programmes are a way to gain then when older.
Transferable
Skills: are a variety of skills, such as problem solving, entrepreneurship
and communication skills, which are essential for productive jobs. These skills
allow people to adapt to different work environments and they can be gotten
through education.
Technical/Vocational
Skills: are specific practical skills that include metalwork, ICT, sewing,
and farming, that prepare you for a particular job. They are learned at higher
levels of education and formal and informal on-the-job training such as
apprenticeship.
Having shared the basic
three-level framework skills needed to increase productivity, there is a need
to discuss the path to bring about more learning and close-up skills gap
presently witnessed in the country. The current global effort to improve both
access to, and quality of, education for people like Hadiza mentioned above is
a welcomed thing. Governments, private organizations, NGOs and the United
Nations are striving to ensure that young people are able to go to school and
learn the skills needed to get a job. I
must commend the Nigerian government for setting aside about $6.43 million
(1.03 billion naira) trust fund aimed at revitalizing the adult and youth
literacy project in the country, According to the Executive Secretary of
National Commission for Mass Education, Alhahi Jibrin Paiko speaking in Benin
City, Edo State on 19th August 2013 reported by almost all national newspapers
and television/radios during a training for trainers of literacy facilitators
“the objective was to strengthen national capacity for the delivery of quality
literacy programme to the estimated 40 million illiterates in the country with
a view to achieving the education for all and education related MDGs by 2015”.
However it should be like every other projects that government will make such
pronunciations without following it up or releasing the funds as at when
due.
For the country to have more
learning to more people it must join the rest of the world in providing access
to school, second-chance education programmes for those who missed out, and
practical training to teach vital skills for work. In addition, the country
must pave the way to the future of education by increasing access to digital
learning. How will it happen?
Access to
Education: with over 40 million estimated illiterates in the country, the
leadership must urgently design programme that target issues causing this high
rate of illiteracy like gender, location, economic factors or even conflicts
plunging the North-East of Nigeria. Some solutions can be designing flexible
time-table that accommodates children that have to work, community engagement
to ensure that everyone understands the need for girl child education, or
social protection measures such as cash transfers to help poorest of poor with
the cost of books and uniforms.
Second
Chance: moving across the street of various cities in the country, are
young people and even adults who have missed out on school and failed to have even
the most basic skills; for those people a second-chance should be given them to
obtain employable skills. The EFGMR youth version (2012) noted that “though
second-chance programmes focus on primary education, it is essential that this
training is not limited to the very young, as is often the case. Second chance
for individuals gives them an opportunity to gain foundation skills that will
lead them to better employment.” Nelson Mandela’s quote, used as an opening
remark for this essay attests to that, education is the great engine of
personal development; it gives a second-chance.
Practical
training: skills are not only developed in schools but can be gotten at
vocational centres and through work-based training. Nigeria is blessed with
many vocational centres but they should be equipped with all needed training
facilities and qualified instructors with technical know-how. Internships and
apprenticeships must be encouraged and supervised because they are well-known
types of work-based training; presently students from our various higher
institutions of learning go for industrial training for going sake, some are
money conscious, some do not even go there; they just sit in their room and
fill their log books to score marks and graduate. All these as a result of poor
supervision from both their school and the Industrial Training Funds (ITF)
saddled with the responsibility of managing such skills training for the
country work force; not without the usual grumble of lack of funds. The National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) scheme
can be another avenue to get most graduate to acquired employable skills, the
programme should be redesigned not this present mandate of forcing everybody to
go teach, it is one thing to acquire knowledge, it is one thing to be able to transfer
such, we are complaining that standard of our education has dropped and now the
same system is forcing young graduate themselves that needs more skills to
survive in this present day economy after youth service to give foundational skills
to students in school. Therefore skills acquisition should be paramount in the
scheme at least in the first six (6) and they now serve the nation in the
remaining months.
Above all vocational skills
training should be in cooperated with foundational skills especially for the
young adults and adults seeking a second-chance.
Digital
Learning:
The Education for all report
2012 noted on page 247 that “the use of information and communication
technology (ICT) in education is gathering momentum across the world, even in
some of the most challenging environments in developing countries”, The youth
version of the same report captured it more beautifully by saying “the internet can be a
godsend for young people looking for an education. The majority of the population
has a mobile subscription in every continent and computers are becoming more widespread.
Even right now, many young people that can’t afford full schooling are able to
access the internet. They can use the internet (whether at home or somewhere
public like a library) to learn at their own pace for free, even if they have
to work in the daytime or can’t afford or access regular schooling. If they
want to get a qualification like a high school diploma, then they just need to
afford time and money for one or two days to attend an exam. This lowers the
cost barrier of pursuing an education a lot. “Nigeria government can learn from
the ‘Indian Government who launched tablets with internet at just $35 for
students, with plans to distribute 10 million over the next few years. The
ability to learn from the internet is making education more accessible for
everyone’. Nigeria must tap into the vast majority of mobile phone connections;
it must increase its broadband to boast more connectivity for users. Also the
nation is reap for its own ‘Silicon Valley’ there are large numbers of self
trained youths on ICT hacking into the network of most mobile phone companies
to provide cheaper services to subscribers in terms of browsing and surfing the
internet, even watching free digital television. These young people should be
assembled, trained and encouraged to start out sourcing ICT from Nigeria and
providing better services not just relaying on expatriates.
More
Finance: experience has shown that investing in education can help
achieve the EFA goals. However, in doing this mechanism must be put in place to
ensure that cost does not now become a barrier to young people noted the EFGM
youth version report 2012. The report noted that since Dakar in 2000 many
countries have been investing more in education but most countries need to do
more, and I think Nigeria should be one among such nations that needs to do
more; the country must put education at the top of political agenda, one of the
several issues that have caused incessant strikes by ASUU in Nigeria has been
poor funding of education. It’s time the country stop depending on donors even
in the area of funds for educational projects, donors are cutting down on their
investment in education in developing countries; good management of natural
resources can help us fund more learning and closing skills gap in the country,
Nigeria is blessed, the need to diversify the economy cannot be over
emphasized, depending on oil alone is not helpful even at that the funds from
crude oil if managed well will fund our education and collaboration with
private organizations might also be helpful to might up short falls from
government spending on education. Because a strong investment in skills
education is the key to national prosperity; all we need now it’s a skilled
education.
Having shared the skills
framework and pathway to bringing them into action in our present educational
condition or policy framework, which will help to bring more learning to more
people in Nigeria and bridge the skills gap that now exists. I would love to conclude by saying we as
citizens of Nigeria are responsible for ensuring that our government fulfils
its obligation to provide education. The 10 steps recommendation made by young
people who worked on the youth version for Education for All Global Monitoring
Report for 2012, will be a useful tool for Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGOs), Government Ministries and Agencies responsible for education, Students,
Teachers, individuals and all stakeholders in the education sector demanding
skilled education for all. And they are:
·
Provide second-chance
education for those with low or no foundation skills through increase government
funding, policy creation and having them in national budget forecast
·
Tackle the barriers that limit access to lower secondary school
·
Make upper secondary educating
more accessible to the disadvantaged and improve its relevance to work by ensuring that technical
and vocational training is included with flexible schedules; creatively teaching
skills relevant to job context through curriculum reforms and giving career
guidance.
·
Give poor urban youth access
to skills training for better jobs, through strengthening training provided by master
craftspeople and improving training conditions. Also budding entrepreneurs be
provided access to funds to start their own business as well as much-needed
training.
·
Aim policies and programmes at
youth in deprived rural areas: National governments should give greater attention
to rural young people by providing them second-chance education to acquire
foundational skills as well as training in agriculture techniques to enhance
productivity.
·
Link skills training with
social protection for the poorest youth: skills’ training alone are unlikely to be
sufficient for most disadvantaged urban and rural poor. Therefore, measures
should be taken to provide them protection schemes and basic literacy/numeric
training.
·
Make the training needs of
disadvantaged young women a high priority: through providing them with
microfinance and livelihood assets as well as skills to manage them.
·
Harness the potential of
technology to enhance opportunities for young people:
·
Improve planning by
strengthening data collection and coordination of skills programmes
·
Mobilize additional funding
from diverse sources dedicated to the training needs of disadvantaged youth.
Let’s remember Nelson Mandela comment that I quoted above
even as my prayers’ is with him on his sick bed, lets honour him by ensuring
that education is made available for all citizens, I leave you again with the
quote ‘Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through
education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a
mineworker can become the head of the mine that a child of farm workers can
become the president of a great nation.’
Reference
- Youth Version of the 2012 EFA Global
Monitoring Report: “Youth and Skills: Putting education to
work” http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international
agenda/efareport/
- FG earmarks N1.03bn for revitalization of adult literacy
article written by
Gabriel Enogholase published on 20th August, 2013. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/fg-earmarks-n1-03bn-for-revitalisation-of-adult-literacy/
