Kaduna – A United States-based don, Prof. Aondover Tarhule, on Monday called on the Federal Government to initiate steps that would elevate the standards of technical and vocational education in the country.
Tarhule told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna that such steps would reduce unemployment and improve service delivery in the country.
The don is the chairman, Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, United States of America.
He blamed the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria on what he called: “too much emphasis on university education’’.
Tarhule called on the Federal Government to establish many functional technical and vocational institutions across the country to boost access to skill acquisition.
“I think we have a situation in this country where we focus too much on the classic liberal education; everybody goes to the university and then they have no job on graduation.
“We need a skilled technical labour force; as such, we ought to put up in every state, almost as many technical colleges and institutions as the universities we have.
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“ You go to restaurants and hotels, and you don’t get good services because people don’t learn it.
“This is because we don’t have enough vocational institutions where people get certification and proper training, “the don said.
Tarhule said that if there were as many technical and vocational institutions as there were universities in the country, not everybody would like to go to the university.
He said, “In the United States, carpenters and electricians earn as much income as professors, yet they did not go to the university.
“They don’t need to; they went to technical and vocational schools and they are doing very well.
“There is the need, therefore, to elevate the standard of technical and vocational education so that the people can tap from the gains that accrue from it.
“This way, we will be reducing congestion in the universities and strengthened the service aspect of our industry; thereby, elevating the quality of service and the quality of life for everybody goes up.
“ I hope that at some point, we will begin this very important task, because there is a lot that should be done and can be done on multiple fronts to strengthen technical and vocational education in the country.’’ (NAN)