Nigerian youths need vocational skills, not paper certificates — Rimax Institute boss

An educationist and founder, Mr Livinus Okwara, has expressed great concern for the need to reposition vocational and technical education in the country.

He said the government at all levels must take the lead by giving high priority to these two areas of education, adding that doing so would substantially address youth unemployment and poverty in the country.

Okwara stated this at a news conference in Lagos to announce the establishment of a secondary school that also runs vocational courses.

According to him, if there are enough people with vocational and technical skills in the country who are competent to handle jobs, they will be easily spotted for engagements that will be cost-effective.

Okwara, who first introduced a computer school in Nigeria in 1975, observed that it is more beneficial to introduce children to vocational and technical education at a young age so that they can acquire knowledge and skills that can easily get them economically engaged even as students.

He noted that this has been the practice in China and a few other countries, hence their rapid economic growth and development.

While stating that vocational and technical education supply most of the middle-level manpower needed for the growth and development of the manufacturing and informal sectors, Okwara pointed out that the inadequacy of these skills has largely contributed to the collapse of many companies in the country in recent years.

“So, it is high time the minds of our youths are refocused from the craze for higher academic qualifications to the acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills to make them economically relevant,” he stressed.

The Rimax Institute boss, however, explained that his new secondary school would offer up to 74 vocational courses in different areas, including computer, telecommunication, electrical/electronics, fashion, agriculture, construction, health and medical, food science, art, and business, among others.

He added that every student, aside from normal secondary school subjects, would have the opportunity to choose six related courses that they would be trained in and master before leaving school.

He said even though the government has an idea of vocational studies by introducing the 6-3-3-4 educational system, it lacks the capability to effectively drive and promote the system to achieve desirable results.

He said that was why every Nigerian child wants to transition from basic school, which covers the first nine years of education, to senior school and then to higher school up to the university level to acquire certificates they may not even be able to defend.

He emphasized that the vocational and technical subsector is really one of the major sources of income for many families not only in Nigeria but also globally, and the government would need to give better attention to it.

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