The 21st Century Challenges of Technical Education in Nigeria
Keywords:
Technical education, challenges, training, curriculaAbstract
Technical education deals with the training of technical personnel for the
purposes of initiating, facilitating and implementing the technological
development of a nation and also to create the basic awareness of
technological literacy to our youths. In Nigeria, the training of technical
personnel has witnessed formidable challenges ranging from poor funding
to inadequate facilities both quantitatively and qualitatively, nonavailability of adequate human capacity, brain drain and poor staff training
and retention profiles. Others include weak university/industry partnership,
defective curricula, traditional approach to teaching, poorly equipped
laboratories, poor monitoring of standards for the training of prospective
technologists and an inadequate ICT environment. This study critically
examined technical education and its challenges in Nigeria in the 21st
century. It was concluded that a comprehensive reform towards technical
education and a deliberate attempt to uplift the programme was the only
panacea to a technological enderado in Nigeria.
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