Playing the Catch-up Game: Relevance of the Nigerian Higher Education System in the wake of the 21st century ?

Playing the Catch-up Game: Relevance of the Nigerian Higher Education System in the wake of the 21st century ?

Co-authors: Erioluwa Adeyinka, Adelakun Tufayl, Hammed Kayode Alabi

Keywords: higher education, 21st century, tertiary institutions, unemployment, employability

?Many would argue that Nigerian higher education institutions are in a dire need of urgent attention and reform. On the one hand, it is not preparing graduates with the skills and tools to harness the opportunities of the 21st century. On the other hand, the curriculum is not designed to meet 21st century needs (Nwambam, Nnennaya and Nwankpu, 2018). Scholars such as McKinnon (2013) argue how the hiigher education institutions will prepare students for the jobs of the future and employability remains unclear. However, in Nigeria, the lack of trained teachers and instructors in 21st- century skills and innovative teaching pedagogy continue to impede students development of 21st-century skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, research and entrepreneurship (Odey & Effiong, 2012). Hence this paper argues that there is a need to problematize the Nigerian Higher Education Institutions curriculum and its alignment with 21st century needs. First, this article describes an historical perspective at the history of Nigerian higher education and relates it with the level of unemployment and economic growth in the country. Second, this paper looks at the current higher education curriculum challenges in the 21st century.?

In any given society, the education sector plays a key role in its socio-economic and political development Ozturk (2001). However, in Nigeria, it is assumed to be suffering from poor planning and implementation (Ayiuche, 2000). For example, the Nigerian higher education curriculum is a reflection of the poor planning of the educational sector as it produces ill equipped graduates who are not able to integrate into the 21st-century workforce. Infact, the result is the alarming unemployment rate in the country. Agwu (2019) noted that this is caused by the exposure to obsolete curriculum content and delivery. More so, as the population increases, the unemployment rate is seen to increase in correlation. As of 2016, the unemployment rate was 12.09%, it rose to 23.13% in 2018 and 33.28% in 2020 (statistics 2020).?Nonetheless, Nigeria has a labour workforce where an additional half a million people graduate from universities yearly. Yet, less than half of these graduates get employed with jobs.?While the curriculum seems to be the major cause of the inability of graduates to become employable, it is important to investigate how the trajectory or history of the education system contributes to curriculum underdevelopment and unemployability of graduates in the 21st-century.?

The history of the education system in Nigeria can be traced to the period of independence and decolonization in the 1960’s (Asiwaju, 1972). During this time, much emphasis was placed on the production of high level manpower to fill positions that were vacated by the British officers who worked in the country pre-independence (colonial period) (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1960). This also reflected a shift in the educational sector as the education system was fully controlled by the british and ownership was transferred to the Nigerian Government (ibid). Nigeria, a new country in a bid to control its educational system, began to look inward on how to decolonize the british education system (ibid).?This process birthed the Ashby Commission. The Ashby Commission was prepared to provide guidance to the creation of higher education institutions and post- secondary education certification. While the Ashby commission laid the foundation for higher education, it was completely westernized and reflected the Anglo-American values (ibid.). This is why it was criticized and rejected (Babalola, 2003; Akangbou, 1985; Asiwaju, 1972). Following the criticism of the commission, Nigerian government responded by initiating the 1969 curriculum conference in 1969, which gave birth to the National Policy on Education (NPE) and reflected the cultural values of the country. It also paid adequate attention to self employment and expansion of vocational?and technical education in the country (NPE, 2004). More so, Section 5 of the NPE (2004) dealt extensively with the university and tertiary education policy which placed much emphasis on Science and Technology but silence creativity and self employment. Aladekomo (2017) pointed that this is the genesis of unemployability in the 21st century.?Ajake, Ndifon and Ekpo (2014) reiterated this argumentation and further asserts that this has also resulted in the low productivity of the education sector in Nigeria when compared to countries like South Africa, Japan and the USA. This also coincides with the World Bank (2018) reports which underscored that it is not that Nigeria does not have the workforce, we have the workforce that cannot be trained and this is a result of a poor educational system. This is why scholars such as Amadi and Ememe (2013) argued that the education curriculum has to be reviewed, especially the tertiary education curriculum to meet 21st century needs. They further provided that in any given society, the education curriculum is the sine qua non and heartbeat of development as it is considered as a strong resource to the institutions of higher learning.

According to Oyekan (2006), curriculum is the totality of planned learning experience which the learner will acquire under the guidance of an approved educative agencies (such as home, school, and other institutions) in order to realize?his/her own needs, interest and aspiration for the benefit of growth of society. This position clearly illustrates that the education curriculum plays a sacrosanct role in providing content for the economic sector and it also provides relevant attitude, skills, knowledge for championing human development. Scholars like Ajake et al (2020) positioned that the context of any curriculum and method of implementation will go a long way to determine the survival of the university system. Clark (2001) went further to highlight the need for university departments to change and revisit their curricular every two or three years in order to ensure that the content of their teaching reflects the rapidly advancing frontiers of scientific and information knowledge. This position of Clark is in order as there is a need for the stakeholders in the education sector to be alert and update the curriculum?to fit its relevance in the 21st century socio-economic community.

Moving forward, the employment rates for graduates and post graduate students across the globe is becoming competitive and scarce as a result of the changing trends in the demands of the labor market.?The quality of education impacted on the students at undergraduate level is not in tandem with the requirements of the competitive global market (Mujundar, 2012.) Many students find it very difficult to cope with the demands of the labor market because while still in school, they were not subjected to the skill acquisitions expected of their various career exploits.?This is why most employers after recruiting university graduates will subject them to retooling and skill programs (Sokan, 2007).?Therefore, this calls for an urgent attention to integrate skill acquisitions into the higher education curriculum and create graduates that can fit into the 21st-century job market (Ajake, et al., 2014)

Nevertheless, there has been a great deal of interest in the effectiveness of universities' curriculum in preparing students adequately for the labour market and for the future of work. This is because more changes are constantly evolving in the Nigerian economy and human capital development. For instance, in 2019, General studies were launched by the National Universities Commission as a minimum standard for academic standards in the University curriculum. This was done as a unique method of making graduates more competitive and comparable in the global labour market. This course included subjects such as Use of English, Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies, Entrepreneurship Studies and History & Philosophy of Science. However, the curriculum still remains obsolete and does not contribute to the total development of graduates i.e. their ability to create employment opportunities or leverage the opportunities that the 21st-century offers such as information, communication and technology. While studies have indicated that there is a correlation between higher education and unemployment rates in Nigeria ( ), there are other factors that could be attributed to unemployment. This includes funding, infrastructural facilities and access to new technologies. Despite these factors, the Nigerian universities curriculum still contributes to the large chunk of unemployment rates. Hence, this paper will highlight the effectiveness and adequacy of Nigerian Universities curriculum as it relates to employment and 21st-century skills while offering perspectives regarding barriers to a curriculum review and recommendations to appropriate stakeholders.

Scholars already agree that there is a need to revamp what is being taught in tertiary institutions in Nigeria (Tajudeen 2014, Ajake et al 2014, Sarimah et al 2014). This is because of the large deficit between what is required as sufficient by employers and the capacity that is being administered in universities and tertiary institutions. Unarguably, the curriculum content is agreed to focus too much on abstract terms and theories and is considered too archaic. This is evident in the detriment of human capital development in the country and the increased unemployment rate.?Furthermore, a recent survey was carried out by Akinbode et al (2020 ) to investigate the extent of the deficits of 21st-century skills among fresh graduates and their increased level of unemployment and underemployment from a Human Resources Practitioner perception. The study showed that 21st-century skills such as basic communication skills, social relation skills, ICT skills and work culture skills were lagging among the majority of fresh graduates in Nigeria. The fact that lack of skills is seen before unemployment is not just a correlation, but a direct pre-determinant factor (Aderogba 2011. Sharma 2013). It is therefore not surprising to see that the exponential increase in unemployment, since the skills that employers are after are not present in the labour force. Moreover, what is frequently observed as earlier stated Sokan (2007) is employers re-training graduates to fit even the most basic corporate jobs.

To tackle this identified issue, scholars and educators have therefore proposed the development of skill acquisition centers and graduate trainee programs for fresh graduates (Akinbode et al, Tajudeen et al 2014). This however falls contrary to the popular opinion that there is more focus on knowledge than practical ability or capability in university education. Hence, further propelling us into the same cycle of training yet without the necessary skills or experience. Unarguably, this scheme is only possible if these programs are centered on application rather than knowledge acquisition. More so, for a curriculum to effectively equip students with 21st-century skills, curriculum material and teachers delivery of the curriculum materials must be adequately funded. The budgetary education allocation in Nigeria has experienced a significant decline in the past ten years Alfred (2020) which means a lower amount is being assigned to the curriculum delivery and implementation year in year out, which accounts for the deficit of 21st-century skills in students and why they are not employable. (Akinbode & Oyelude, 2020).

In this paper, we concluded and argued that the Nigeria higher education curriculum needs to be problematized as it does not translate into the needs of the 21st-century. Even if steps have been taken to revamp the education curriculum, there is a need to pay attention to the needs of society as well as the needs of the labour market to ensure students are adequately prepared for it. For instance, there is no need for companies to retrain graduates, if that have been catered for by?the higher education institutions. More importantly, to reap the dividend of higher education, we have argued that more funding needs to be dedicated towards equipping teachers with contemporary pedagogies and improving curriculum materials to meet 21st-century standards without relegating national objectives.?

Ethical Approval: Ethical Approval was not required during the course of the study

Source of funding: There were no external funding source for this study

Conflict of Interest:The authors declar no conflict of interest during the course of the study


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moshood abdulgafar

Student at Auchi polytechnic

1 年

A well crafted and insightful piece. I hope more of this can be oftentimes, strayed in the air so as to tickle the consciousness of the major educational stakeholders in a bid to swing into action to seeing to the rectification of the decay in the Nigerian education system. It is unarguably a fact that the design program of study in major higher institutions in the country is not the students for current demands let alone that of the future. The world is moving at a very fast pace with its ever changing and growing demand and this keeps leaving the Nigerian educational system far behind. I hope that immediate attention and action is taken for I believe that though, a lot has to be done but it's not impossible.

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Amarachi G. Nwankwo

MB. Ch.B, Ife (in view) | Founder, Xchra Girl Initiative | CGI U Fellow '23 | MCN Fellow '23 | Leadership & Social Impact | Aspiring PM

2 年

"focus on application rather than knowledge acquisition." Great piece Toluwalashe!

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Covenant Odedele

Medical Student. Visionary. 2023 Diana Award Recipient. Team Lead, Students on LinkedIn. TEDx Speaker. Social Impact. 2024 Nigeria Higher Education Foundation Scholar.

2 年

Really amazing and thoughtful article here, Toluwalashe Soyemi. Well-done!

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Success Yole Areeveso

Education, Innovation and Data || Allan and Nesta Ferguson Scholar 23’

2 年

This is insightful. I love the points stated in the article and during my time at the university, I had to look for more ways to develop myself and gain new skills, the curriculum is completely outdated and needs a total change. The effect of the covid 19 pandemic exposed the huge gaps that we faced, asides the curriculum being outdated students found it hard to adapt to new systems and even in the little cases where some technology tools were introduced. From my point of view, I wouldn't call that a huge success, because I got questions from students asking me to teach how to draft a mail or even use zoom. Asides from the points mentioned, as much as skill acquisition is emphasized the place of soft skills can be added. How can include more teaching-learning methods in the classroom? 95% of the courses being taught uses a lecture-student teaching method. I found out that courses that I submitted a project, did a class presentation or had to use my creativity, were easy to comprehend. To conclude, I like the emphasis on people applying what they have learned in skill acquisition programs. There is a high cat and rat race to get more certificates to add to peoples cv than applying the skills learnt.

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