White-collar-focused education system outdated — Fayemi

Ekiti State Governor and chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi, says Nigeria needs to evolve a new approach to education, stressing that the ‘white-collar-focused’ system can no longer support national development.

He spoke in Abuja yesterday at the official flag-off of the Innovation Development and Effectiveness in Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) project.

The World Bank is supporting the IDEAS project in each of the participating states of Ekiti, Benue, Edo, Abia, Gombe and Kano a $200m credit facility for implementation.

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Fayemi, represented by the Ekiti State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Olabimpe Aderiye, noted that today’s world requires digital, entrepreneurial and vocational skills, accompanying the conventional education, for any nation to catch up with the rest of the world.

 “The educational system bequeathed to us by our colonial masters and the current system of education in Nigeria are gradually being overtaken by civilization and technological advancement, manifesting in artificial intelligence, automation robotics and the likes, thereby resulting in educational policy summersault and labour market congestion, with its attendant vices.

“Arising from this standpoint therefore, there’s the urgent need to rejig our educational system to proffer solutions to the avalanche of challenges confronting us as a nation. It’s high time we tackled the menace with strong determination for a paradigm shift from the white-collar to the blue-collar enterprises”, he said.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, represented by Permanent Secretary Andrew Adejoh, said the successful implementation of the IDEAS project would further help Nigeria to grow its economy.

Country Director, World Bank, Shubham Chaudhuri, urged the benefitting states to make a judicious use of the funds to improve the education sector in their states.