Worried by the declining vocational studies and technical education with the attendant dearth of technical personnel needed in key productive sectors of the economy, the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, has announced plans to hold a national education summit soon.
Addressing journalists in Lagos on the summit, National Vice-President and Chairman, NACCIMA Committee on Technical Education, Oba Michael Adesina, said the nation’s declining capability in technical education, which had resulted in the near absence of technical personnel, was largely responsible for lack of operation and maintenance of infrastructure in the country.
According to him, this limitation has resulted in poor quality of production and excuse for foreign investors to bring into the country thousands of lower and middle level technical manpower, thereby depriving the nation of job opportunities meant for the nation’s teeming youths.
He said, “The purpose of the summit is to create an effective forum for public-private dialogue to address the dearth of technical and vocational education graduates with appropriate training , which is largely responsible for poor operation and maintenance of infrastructure in the country, particularly in areas such as the telecoms, power operation and maintenance, industrial machinery operation and maintenance, mechanised agriculture/ agribusiness, construction, oil and gas, tourism and hospitality, water supply and transportation, among others.
“The growth and success of these sectors are very dear to the chieftains of private sector operations.”
The theme of the summit, according to him, is, “Technical and vocational education as driver of economic development and job creation.”
He, however, said that the date had yet to be fixed, adding that it would be announced soon.
Adesina explained, “Towards revamping our educational system (especially technical and vocational) and improving the literacy level, NACCIMA has taken upon itself this wake-up call by organising a two-day national education summit to address a number of burning technical and vocational issues of concerns, with a view to restoring the lost glory of our education system.
“The summit is intended to get relevant stakeholders from the public and private sectors of the economy together to brainstorm on the challenges/problems of technical and vocational education in Nigeria and proffer the way forward, in line with the Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government.”
According to him, the summit is also expected to produce a communiqué that would assist the government to frontally tackle and resolve the problems confronting the educational system in the country.
In order to ensure a successful summit, the NACCIMA vice-president said the body had sought cooperation from identified public and private sector stakeholders in the form of generous financial support through collaboration or sponsorship of the summit.
He listed the key speakers expected at the summit to include the Federal Ministry of Education; relevant government regulatory agencies/parastatals (for instance, the National Board for Technical Education, the National Business and Technical Education Board, Raw Materials Research and Development Council and Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board, among others) and private sector industries and service providers (like Dangote Group, Finlab Industries, Flour Mills of Nigeria),among other stakeholders.
According to him, all educational institutions, including universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and technical and vocational institutions and other interest groups like chambers of commerce, the media, non-governmental organisational and the academia would be involved.
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Source : punchng[dot]com
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