Benue State University, Makurdi

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: THE BOOBY TRAPS AND THE ROADMAPS

Michael Ichima Oodo

Abstract

Vocational education which aims at empowering individuals for the future, provides the needed platforms for the achievement of sustainable development goals of quality education and economic growth. It provides an opportunity for job creation, poverty alleviation, increase productivity and economic development of any nation. This paper examined the booby traps and road maps of vocational education for sustainable development in Nigeria. Some of these booby traps include obsolete equipment, dilapidated laboratories with expired chemical, inadequate textbooks and instructional materials. Others are lack of knowledge on the part of teachers, outdated curricula, poor funding, B.Sc. / HND dichotomy and poor teaching and learning environment. The paper identified the following roadmaps for vocational education in Nigeria. These include; massive investment in infrastructure to improve teaching and learning environment, capacity building for teachers, technologists and laboratory technicians, effective information dissemination on vocational education, expansion of facilities to improve enrolment, regular curricula review, partnership and collaboration with the industries and the institutions among others.The study’s recommendation include: upgrading the polytechnics to University of Technology or Applied Sciences and Colleges of Education to University of Education, integration between the industries and the vocational schools, increase funding for vocational education, regular curriculum review, capacity building for teachers among others.

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