Canada proposes new education system for Nigeria

Canada proposes new education system for Nigeria
Ngozi John-Anigbogu, Abuja

Mr. Paul Brennan of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) and Mr. Chris Cooter, High Commissioner of Canada

Canadian authorities have proposed a transformation of the educational system in Nigeria to solve the problem of mass unemployment of the country’s youths.

Canadian High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr Chris Cooter and the Vice President of the International Partnerships of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, Mr Paul Brennan said Nigeria should shift from the concept of ‘Supply driven education to Demand driven education and training that are tailored towards the needs of the Labour Market.”

They are therefore presenting a Canadian College Model tagged ‘Education for Employment’ EFE, where school authorities, stakeholders and employers sit together to design education curricula that meet employers needs. 

They were speaking at a joint press conference held at the High Commission of Canada in Abuja, after a-ten-day visit to Nigeria by Mr Brennan during which he met key Nigerian officials, leaders of educational institutions and a cross section of employers in Lagos and Abuja.

Canadian experience

Sharing Canada’s forty years of experience in technical and vocational training, Mr Brennan said that what the Nigerian economy needed at this time was skilled entrepreneurs and not university certificate graduates.

Brennan said that technical and vocational education system would solve mass unemployment of young people in Nigeria.  He noted that in today’s changing world, reliance on Certificates might no longer be tenable. “I think it’s a bit of colonial left-over that the only good education is the university one. Well, the world in which we live in, it may be true even twenty, thirty years ago, but the world we live in, is no longer that way. Governments are cutting down in terms of jobs which were where most of the graduates went,  it’s a very competitive world so other jobs disappear because they go up to China or elsewhere, so what we now need are not more and more university graduates, what we need are more and more people that have some post secondary and have got very practical training,” he emphasized.

Cultural changes

He said that discussions with Nigerians from different sectors showed that some cultural changes within Nigeria will be required to achieve this.

The Vice President said there were negative values placed on Technical Education which according to him is the wrong notion that vocational and technical education is for people who do not have much intelligence.

‘’this is an indication of a fundamental issue of cultural change that has not transitioned to correspond to the Economic Change. The Economic Change is that employers want people with practical skills, with some work experience, also the economy needs some entrepreneurs, people who can create new businesses, and not only businesses and employment  of yesterday but also jobs of tomorrow,’’ he said.

The second cultural change, he pointed out, is that historically, university education system was totally disconnected from the world of business and employment as universities and Colleges did their own thing and taught what students should learn.

He said economic powers and companies on the other hand, did what they did to make money and progress, and there was no necessary or voluntary link between employers and the world of education and training making the curriculum out of work with the actual job market.

“What we have done in Canada has ensured that Curriculum is developed with the people doing the job. We go into the work place and analyse the competences that are required for the particular job you are training for,” hestated.

Brennan said that if Nigeria can make this connection, Education for Employment, it would have a sustainable dynamic between the education training system and the actual changing world of work.

He explained that there was also the cultural change of systems complimentarily working together and that the 400 educational institutions in Nigeria could work together and complement each other taking up students that graduate either from technical schools or universities to upgrade them in the fields offered by them and recognizing each other’s certificates. This according to him is very urgent for Nigeria.

Commitment and urgency

Throwing his weight behind Mr. Brennan, the High Commissioner, Chris Cooter  said there was need for commitment to go with the sense of urgency, which according to him Nigerians have shown. He stressed the need for dramatic change in the curricula to relate with what the employers and the labour market demand.

Nigerian-Canadian relations

Mr Cooter said Canada and Nigeria had an age long relations dating back to 1960’s with strong cooperation in Education, Democracy and Human rights. He pledged his country’s readiness to provide young Nigerians with accessible, cost effective post secondary education and learning through Education for Employment, EFE Programme. 

The Association of Canadian Community Colleges, ACCC, is responsible for implementing EFE programmes with partner countries. It involves key stakeholders, from Ministries, Agencies and authorities responsible for technical and vocational education in designing EFE partnership programme that will strengthen the delivery of skills development programme to better meet labour market needs.

The EFE programme has three key benefits of ( i)meeting the needs of employers for skilled technical and vocational employees (ii) strengthening the skills of entrepreneurs and (iii) contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction through labour force development.

Cokey