An expert and seasoned entrepreneur, Engr. Nnamdi Felix Unachukwu, founder/ senior consultant, Business Matters Incubators (BMI) Finishing School has commended the minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman for taking the initiative to implement one child, two skills education reform.
According to Engr. Unachukwu, "This is a great move and it is what Nigeria needs now, we in BMI through our Catch Them Young Initiative have been advocating for functional education where we revamp the old curriculum and bring in a new set of tools that will help the students to learn skills, learn how to stand on their own, build self-efficacy and self-reliance."
It would be recalled that in the last meeting of the National Council on Education, the Council adopted the new curriculum that will soon be made public. From the statement of the minister, it was gathered that every child upon graduation from primary and secondary school must have learnt two skills.
"We are commending this effort by the Honorable Minister and the Ministry of Education, the research team, and the National Council on Education for adopting it in their last meeting, and we are encouraging them not to relent until it is fully implemented.
"We are also adding our voices to say that implementing this new curriculum requires every stakeholders' participation including teachers and parents, as this is the best thing that can happen to our society".
He said that the earlier it starts, the better it will help to contain the problems experienced by our youth today, who went through the old system and are now coming out without a job, which is turning into a problem for this entire society.
"While the national youth confab as announced by the president will be tackling the issues that the youths of today are facing, we are looking at 10 years down the line, there won't be issues like that, if this new curriculum is properly implemented with skill acquisition and entrepreneurship well represented in the curriculum," he said.
He said Nigeria will have experts in all kinds of skills and will start exporting skills because Nigeria has the potential of making more, generating more revenues from skilled labourers who can export these skills while living in Nigeria, like what is obtained in India, where they make billions of dollars every year through skill export.
"We are encouraging the Ministry of Education to walk the talk and not to announce it without implementation as this excitement might go down the drain if not pushed. For this implementation to work, the public and private sector has to participate maximally, it is not just the education of a whiteboard, it has to be hands-on, and some TV programs that are sponsored by corporate organizations, have to be geared towards establishing students.
"Let there be competition, not just what is in vogue today, but the competition that will be healthy for students to display skills and vocational acquisitions, also it will be good for companies to open their doors for students to do IT, even at a young age, and a lot has to happen in the area of certain sponsorships.
"The companies and state governments should begin now to build hubs, where students will do the practicals, and the alumni association of schools should go to those schools and help them build labs, where the students will begin to learn practicals from the lab, so that we are not looking at just academic work, but a hands-on, that is my advice. This is the time to fund education more, for a better tomorrow.
"We're also encouraging the federal government to support this initiative of getting the children to learn skills or adopting the new curriculum when it comes upstream. We may not know what is fully contained in the new curriculum, however for the minister to have announced that upon every graduation a child would have learned two skills, shows that Nigeria stands a great opportunity.
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"We are adding our voice so that they make sure that it's not just learning the skills, but creating a mindset of nation building in the children so that while they are learning the skills, they are becoming entrepreneurs who will cause the wealth creation in our country, in our nation."
Engr. Unachukwu also commended the Education Transformation Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu which according to him is designed to comprehensively overhaul the education sector to ensure quality learning, skill development, access, and equity.
