- Professor Mamman stated this at the National Stakeholders Workshop on the Development of a Roadmap for the Nigerian Education System 2024-2027 in Anuja, Nigeria
The Education Minister Professor Tahir Mamman says the government is working on how to reset the education system at both the basic and tertiary levels to meet the needs of society.
He said over the years there has been a wide gap between what is taught in schools and what the industry/ the economy requires to meet societal needs, hence the roadmap.
Professor Mamman stated this at the National Stakeholders Workshop on the Development of a Roadmap for the Nigerian Education System 2024-2027 in Anuja, Nigeria.
He said the lack of synergy between the education system and the industry led to the high unemployment rate that Nigeria is currently experiencing.
According to him, the Nigerian educational system over the years had a lot of interventions yet the desired goals have not been achieved
“We had interventions in our educational sectors for a very long time through a lot of commissions, boards among others but we are still where we are today.
“We have our youths out there as graduates but not employable. This is because our education system is not connected to our society or our economy. We cannot remain like this forever,” he said.
Against this background, the minister said the workshop was organised for practical and implementable solutions going forward.
“We are here today recognising this problem. We say something must be done about it.
“The problem has always been meeting the gap between the mission and vision and the actual happening on the ground.
“There are always fantastic policies on paper but the problem is that our people don’t see those policies on the ground. They are not seeing the problems addressed.
“People are no longer seeing the value of sending their children to school because parents have 4 or 5 graduates without jobs,.
“The reason for this is that the quality of education they are getting does not connect them to the industry.
We also have complaints from the industry that we are churning out graduates who are not employable. We cannot go on like this forever.
“This is why we are saying that in line with the mandate of our president, we have to develop something that will help to guide us, guide implementation, and have a clear task and framework that everybody can be guided by in the course of the tenure of this government.
“Schools should be places of applied knowledge,” he said.