*Tasks them to embrace technical education

*As 154,000 candidates write 2023 NABTEB

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA –THE federal government has advised Nigerians to embrace technical education where they will use skills acquired to earn a living, instead of depending on government jobs after graduation from school.

The government which reminded Nigerians that the world has moved beyond the days of white-collar jobs, tasked parents to encourage their wards to embrace technical education.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo said this on Tuesday, after monitoring the ongoing National Business and Technical Examinations Board,NABTEB, in Abuja.

Adejo, who expressed satisfaction with the general conduct of the examination which began last week across the country, said registered students in some states were not allowed to write as the state government which registered them failed to release money for the examination.

He regretted that some state governments were owing the examination body so much that the decision had to be taken to recoup the amount.

Adejo however refused to mention the states involved and the amount being owed the examination body.

Noting that there is improvement in the 2023 examination,he said:” But I keep telling people that as Nigerians,we need to really embrace technical education. We really need to let our children know that the world has moved beyond the days of white-collar jobs. What you get today is what you can do with your hands. And at the pre-tertiary education level, the NABTEB provides that opportunity for training you to be business minded and technologically focused. That is the examination that assesses you to get to that place.

“Now, when you look at what is happening in our university system and our tertiary institutions, they are also diverting to doing innovation and entrepreneurship, that is what makes the difference. “

He appealed to state governors to pay their debts so it can function well.

“Given that education is on the concurrent list,I want to plead with the state governors because some of them disadvantage their citizens from taking this opportunity. They agree to register students free of charge but they don’t pay these fees to examination body.

“A number of states were not allowed to write this examination because the states did not pay. And NABTEB has to take that decision because previously, they have been allowing them but the debt is growing. These examination papers were made with money, the monitoring is money, the marking is money and the release of results is money.

So the best the state could do is that if it agrees to register students, it should pay.

“But I’m very hopeful that with this set of governors, we’re going to get a remarkable change where no state government would owe any of our examination bodies money for their students”, he added.

Adejo explained the reason for embarking on the monitoring exercise:”We’re here from the Federal Ministry of Education to monitor this examination and the essence of this monitoring is to see how the process is going in terms of physical aspect of what happens and what most people don’t see in terms of marking and all others.

Although the examination started a little bit late. This is understandable because there was rain and the weather was not too conducive but I think five minutes late is not too bad considering the weather condition today.

“On the whole, I will say I’m satisfied because there are some things you look for when you are in the examination. First and foremost,are the question papers intact? Are the students who registered for the examination the ones writing it and not mercenaries? And that is done by crosscheck of your paper against the list, the register they have. And how’s the hall, does it provide the opportunity for cheating? So,I think so far,so good, it’s a good start for the examination this year.

Speaking also,the Registrar of, National Board for Technical Education, Prof. Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe, explained that registered candidates in some states were not allowed to write the examination because their state governors who registered them did not fulfill their payments.

She lamented the huge debts so far incured by some state governments.

He explained that'”Some states are owing us and this time, we refused credit so that action reduced the number of candidates writing the examination down. Nevertheless, what we have this year is 54,301. That is the exact number of candidates that enrolled this year.

” As you can see, this is a far cry and that’s to show you that we need to do more, we need to encourage technical education the more. We need more candidates because that is where you get the skills,”she said.

Explaining that the examination started last week across the country, she said:”So, we are one week now into the examination. This week is for our compulsory, general education subjects. As you can see, today is for English Language and tomorrow will be Mathematics followed by Economics on Thursday.”