Vox Pop • Created May 19, 2018 03:00

Should Nigerian graduates ‘go back to school’?

Sylvester A. Ogba PhD, 35, Legal practitioner/Lecturer, UK I can’t agree more with the minister on this. Learning should not end with the traditional degree programme. A year of learning before the regular NYSC programme is enticingly great. However, such learning year should emphasize pragmatic training of the graduates’ interpersonal and business skills. Sunday Abah, […]

Should Nigerian graduates ‘go back to school’?

Sylvester A. Ogba PhD, 35, Legal practitioner/Lecturer, UK

I can’t agree more with the minister on this. Learning should not end with the traditional degree programme. A year of learning before the regular NYSC programme is enticingly great. However, such learning year should emphasize pragmatic training of the graduates’ interpersonal and business skills.

Sunday Abah, 25, Freelance journalist, Lagos

What is the need of going back to school when our institutions produce mechanics who cannot fix a bicycle, engineers who cannot invent?  It is a shame! The educational sector needs to be improved and our higher institutions need total over-hauling, so that we can acquire practical knowledge instead of wasting an extra year in school and not gaining anything at the end.

Jeff Friday, 24, student, Kogi State

The government will only make life unbearable for Nigerian students. To get qualified graduates equipped with the knowledge to take over industries, is not how long they stay in school, but the quality of education they get. Rather, government should do something about corruption, ‘sex for marks’ and buying of grades in universities and equip them with facilities of international standard.

Mathew A. Lynda, 22, student, Lokoja

It is not proper to spend an extra year after the mandatory years of pursuing a degree. The government should instead create an avenue for graduates to be engaged, improve their skills rather than sending them on an extra year after school.

Musa Ramatu, 19, Self-employed, Makurdi

The answer is ‘yes.’ Most of our graduates are incompetent in their fields due to lack of practical knowledge. In Nigeria today, we have graduates of Electrical Engineering who cannot even connect two wires but can explain ways those wires can be connected.  There is the need for students to go back to school to improve their skills.

Dr Usman Ogbo, 40, Lecturer, Kogi State University

The purported suggestion by the minister may be a product of ‘lazy’ thinking. Rather than suggesting such backward measures, he should have advocated for comprehensive and all inclusive review of the present curriculum. Curriculum review and its faithful implementation will certainly address the perceived gaps.

Manaba Daniel Abah, 30, Legal Practitioner, Lagos

The solution does not lie in graduates going back to school. Rather, establishing a standard educational system which is affordable. Assuming without conceding, we agree that they go back to school, of what standard is such school? It is still going to be a ‘Nigerian system?’ Improved educational standard is the way forward. If it is achieved, the menace of half-baked graduates will be over. 
 
Uthman N. Talatu, 27, job seeker, Lagos

 
What are we going back to study after graduating? What will one learn for another year that you have not learnt after four years? It will be a waste of time, we do not need extra year of study in our educational system.

 

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