By Our Correspondent
Former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, has suggested that sharing interdisciplinary knowledge and experiences, and enunciation of pragmatic and policy impacting solutions, could be the way out graduate unemployment in the country.
Speaking on the topic: “Tackling the Problem of Unemployment in Nigeria,” at the Fafunwa Educational Foundation (FEF),Okebukola expressed deep concern over the high rate of joblessness in the country.
He said the theme for this year’s conference was based on the foundation’s conviction that Nigeria required practical and holistic approaches, with result-oriented partnerships to tackle unemployment.
The former acting vice chancellor of Lagos State University (LASU), who is also a member of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Foundation, advised entrepreneurs in the various disciplines to bring their expertise to bear on the country’s unemployment question.
“All stakeholders must converge and share interdisciplinary knowledge and experiences that will reflect not only in the truly diverse manifestations and implications of unemployment in the country, but also give plausible, pragmatic and policy impacting solutions”, he said.
Head, Academic Committee of the foundation, Professor Kayode Alao, said in his remarks that Nigeria educational system was drifting and called for urgent step to revitalise it.
“We have to think outside the box on what will work. Let us move away from theory to practical. For every 10 Nigerian graduates, nine and a half do not get employment. This is an indicator that the country is in trouble. Graduates are becoming armed robbers and it is not business as usual. What we taught students in the 1960s and 1980s is in the curriculum we are still using in our universities now.
