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A don at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and former Vice-Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Prof Femi Mimiko, has stated that curriculum administered in the secondary school system is not deficient, but that the challenge in relation to universities is about delivery, including the facilities available for such, and the quality and number of teachers necessary to make the desired impact.
According to him, the 6-3-3- 4 system of education, as designed, would have availed the nation the opportunity to give Nigerian children Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET), but that the laudable plan has, however, been wantonly misdirected, as the education system had only succeeded in railroading virtually all the children through the entire gamut of the schooling system.
“The challenges in relation to the state of infrastructure, condition of teachers, and urban-rural dichotomy in resourcing of primary schools are also largely applicable to secondary schools in Nigeria,” he added.
Towards this end, he stated that deliberate efforts must be made to move away from this state of affairs, which in addition to producing school leavers that are hardly imbued with the confidence level requisite for fruitful engagement with the larger society, that also constitutes a key challenge faced by tertiary institutions in the generally low quality of intakes from the secondary school system.
“If the quality of intakes into the university system from the secondary school level is abysmal, the universities can only do so much in burnishing these groups of young Nigerians.
It is therefore imperative to deliberately work on improving quality at the secondary school level, as a necessary step to enhancing the outlook of Nigerian universities,” he said. Mimiko, a Professor of Political Science at OAU, stated this in the 2024 Convocation Lecture of the Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi State, titled: “Reimaging Nigeria’s (University) Education for Wholesome National Development.”
Subsequently, Mimiko, who stressed that the pivotal place of TVET in any country that is serious on national development, cannot be over-emphasised, pointed out that the nation had not only been marginalised TVET, but indeed diminished it in status; including at the tertiary level, where it was supposed to be the forte of polytechnics.
He explained that it is apposite to note that not all children are oriented to going through all the rungs of the ladder of formal education, as there are children who are more attuned only one of the three domains of education, such as cognitive (skill development), rather than either the psychomotor (knowledge), or affective (attitude) domains.
“The place of TVET in the nation’s educational system has thus, been reduced to the puerile conversation on a so-called dichotomy between university first degree and the Higher National Diploma (HND), awarded by polytechnics,” he said.
To the don, under any guise, polytechnic and university education are not the same, and indeed, were not meant to be the same, as they do not have the same orientation or purpose because the two levels of tertiary education are calibrated in different ways and canalised distinctively.
The bottom line to the foregoing, Mimiko reiterated, is that it would be in order for university education in Nigeria to remain focused on the more conceptual dimension of the knowledge enterprise, while technical education, as administered by polytechnics, is devoted to producing middle level manpower in technical competencies.
While explaining that these education paths are of critical importance to any economy that must develop, he further insisted that TVET must be developed as it would require the polytechnics to emphasise technical competencies in their training profile on the one hand, and the government imbuing the polytechnics as well as the broader technical and vocational educational system with the requisite attention for it to provide the necessary attraction for the country’s basic education school leavers.
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