By Gabriel Chy Alonta

A research associate at the department of medicine in Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Dr Edward Ezenwafor, has called for total curriculum review across all levels in the Nigerian education sector. He faulted the existing curriculum and system of education in Nigeria, saying it could not create the change necessary for 21st century students.

Ezenwafor, who spoke in a media chat with Orient Weekend, regretted that the Nigeria system of education placed greater emphasis on certificates rather than skills.

According to him, education should be a platform for equipping people with requisite knowledge and skills to add value to their environments.

“Unfortunately, in Nigeria, education is still regarded as a meal ticket rather than a tool for production and creativity. The notion is that once you have a certificate, then you are qualified for employment (whether you made efforts to acquire any skills or not).

“The worst part is that even the educators share the same notion. That’s why we have professors who only go to class to get their salaries, without spending one second in research, year in and year out.

“We have engineers who wait for employment and don’t even have the skills for making simple toothpick, not to talk of creating anything else.

“Everyone (student and professor alike) is focused on getting out of school after four years with a certificate, and not the stimulation of the mind onto productivity.

He further argued that any nation practicing such would be far from making any meaningful progress. “That’s what our problem is and why we are where we are. That’s why our government, ministries and systems fail. Because we are modelled and patterned to be consumers and not producers.

“There are only two kinds of organisms in an ecosystem; producers and consumers. When one’s education only gets him a meal ticket, then the education simply created a consumer. But when it stimulates one’s mind to improve his environment, then the same education has created a producer.

“Let us work together to drive this message into policy makers and see if we can change the curriculum in various levels of our educational system, regardless of the specific profession that the curriculum serves”, Ezenwafor said.

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https://orientdailynews.com/amp/life-style/education/researcher-draws-roadmap-for-education-in-nigeria/