尼日利亚的进步在于培养出更多的公民和提供高质量的教育，而职业教育则是其中的关键
文I布克拉·奥冈西纳 尼日利亚《领导者报》记者 翻译I 褚骁骥 图片提供I布克拉·奥冈西纳
不受重视的职业教育
尼日利亚人渴望接受良好的教育，并利用他们获得的学位在国内或国际上成为该领域的专家。然而，能够带来学位和职业技术，可以帮助人们实现自力更生，减少失业率，促进社会发展的职业教育在尼日利亚却是缺失的。尼日利亚不仅被认为是非洲人口最多的国家，而且是一个公民渴望获得良好教育的国家。一个没有获得大学学位的人，在尼日利亚通常被认为是一个在职场上没有光明前景的人。在尼日利亚人渴望接受大学教育的需求下，尼日利亚职业教育不断萎缩。
尼日利亚缺乏职业教育的原因在于，职业教育作为正规教育对尼日利亚人并不具有吸引力，而尼日利亚政府也没有把它作为一种高等教育的形式来吸引年轻人。
字典将职业教育定义为一种“在一个特定的职业领域如农业、家庭经济或工业等提供实践性经验的教育性训练。”
职业是通过学习和从事专业技能获得的。它更多的与个人知识相关。如果使用得当的话，职业教育可以有效地推动一个国家发展。例如，纺织工业、家庭经济、商业、时装设计等工业化领域。职业技能也可以在农业中传授，在该领域，我们的农民需要接受培训，以便他们能够在农场获得更好的产量，而矿工也需要接受职业培训，提高开发自然资源的能力。从本质上说，这是为了使人们能够在公认的职业中成为专业人士。
职业教育最早起源于斯堪的纳维亚半岛。我们很容易就能想象到通过职业教育，来自斯堪的纳维亚半岛的维京人学会了制造家用的斧子以及弓箭，从而学会各种生存技巧，这就像成千上万的尼日利亚人聚集在一起学习职业教育一样。然而随着时代的改变以及西方文明在尼日利亚的发展，尼日利亚的职业教育衰落了。在历史上，尼日利亚曾是一个重视职业教育的国家，文献上记载的Nok族手工匠人，以及在1928年发现的由他们制造的红土雕刻品都足以说明这一问题。尼日利亚Ladi Kwali以其出色的陶瓷工艺技术而成为家喻户晓的名字。在尼日利亚，职业教育可以为人们传授谋生的手段。
根据收集到的信息，在1990年尼日利亚出现了三种不同的教育系统：本土的教育系统，古兰经学校，以及正规的欧洲式教育机构。在19世纪中期，基督教传教士将西方教育体系引入了尼日利亚。在殖民时代，学校为毕业生准备的毕业典礼已经开始逐渐在尼日利亚出现了。
在1916年，首任英国驻尼日利亚总督弗雷德雷克拉加德就在尼日利亚建立了学校视察团。尼日利亚教育着重强调学习理论知识而非实践性技能，因为学生必须通过考试才能在今后取得成功。这就在无意间加深了人们对西方教育的好感，而不愿意非正式地学习一项技能。在尼日利亚，学生们需要接受6年强制性的初等教育，然后是中等教育，最后才是高等教育。由于职业教育被认为是非正式的，再加上人们普遍对职业教育缺乏兴趣，职业教育在尼日利亚的前景就更加黯淡了。与此相反的是，人们纷纷涌向大学寻求能够在今后从事白领工作的机会，这样的结果就是，职业教育在尼日利亚既没有得到必要的关注，也没有得到重视。
在尼日利亚，教育部负责监管全国的教育结构，而地方政府则对国家控制的公立教育和地方各级公立学校的政策进行监管。根据尼日利亚的地方统计，职业教育已经解决了尼日利亚70%的失业问题，并进一步在全国树立了全民自力更生的国家文化。学习职业技能可以帮助一个人获得原始资源，并将其转化到有价值的产品中，而无需经过更高级的理论研究过程。今天，大多数大学教授的课程理论性很强，但并非实际工作所需要的。即使对于那些教授实用技能的理工类大学来说，因为人们对拥有高等教育学位的热烈追逐，课程结构的天平也已经开始倾向那些理论性很强的课程了。
尼日利亚的金融首都拉各斯州前州长法什拉（Babatunde Fashola）表示，修建拉各斯州的轻轨路线总共需要800名工作人员，其中510名是熟练的技术类工人。
“如果我们不让我们的孩子从事这类工作的话，我们就会像迪拜一样，只能从马来西亚、新加坡和菲律宾引进劳动力。”他还补充说，建设阿联酋这个漂亮的国家所赚的钱已经帮助建造了拉各斯这座城市。
法什拉还从改善住房、电力和供水等问题出发，强调了获取职业技能的重要性。“谁能够建造房屋和水坝？我们的国家需要粮食，我们需要投资农业。这会涉及到加工、罐头和出口。如果我们连拖拉机都不会使用，它就不会起到任何作用。”如果我们用水晶球来预测未来的话，尼日利亚需要更多的人力、熟练的技术人员，以满足我们农业和制造业等领域的需求。
2012年，“After SchoolAfrica”发布了一份报告，该报告指出，尼日利亚联邦政府批准了86个创新和职业创业机构，授予国家创新文凭(NID)和国家职业文凭(NVD)。尼日利亚政府既没有给项目以更多的说法，也没有为公众给出这个项目的结果。
尼日利亚有一百多所理工学院和联邦教育学院，这些学校中既有私立院校也有政府所管理的公立院校，与大学相比，在这些学校就读的学生人数较少，且一些学生仍然希望参加高等教育入学考试(JAMB)以便进入大学学习。
⬆正在学习计算机操作的尼日利亚学生
中国职业教育走向非洲
现在中国正在加强本国的职业教育，以便服务于习近平主席提出的“一带一路”倡议。中国教育部正在为此建立和其他国家的联系，希望通过教育的手段来加强不同国家间人们的交流。
来自中国教育部的官员徐涛在接受采访时表示：“随着非洲国家经济的增长以及工业化进程的加速，非洲国家急需业务精通的技术人员。因此，中非国家间在职业教育领域的合作就显得非常重要了。”
“中国和尼日利亚之间的合作正在开展中。据我所知，我们现在已经有了一些官方会议、非官方会议和学校之间的交流。就像我之前所说的那样，虽然一些在尼日利亚的中国企业正在提供职业培训，但是对中国而言，职业教育才刚刚起步。我们仍在这方面进行探索，我们愿意与非洲国家，包括尼日利亚进行更多的沟通。”
中国教育部目前正在探索新的教育模式，尼日利亚可以通过与更多的中国企业开展职业培训来加强在这一领域的合作。“无论中国企业走到世界的哪一个地方，职业教育都会为当地培养技术人才。实际上，我们有两个目的,一是提高海外中国公司的运营质量,二是提高当地技术人员的水平，以实现合作的成功。例如，中国商务部和中国教育部帮助埃塞俄比亚建立了职业学校，并为埃塞俄比亚的职业教育提供了援助。”
中国政府现在对约100个国家的人员提供了培训，并且对职业教育的发展给予了更多的关注。中国有色矿业集团制定了“走出去”的战略项目，并在冈比亚启动了该项目。与集团合作的来自中国的八所职业学校也去了冈比亚，并为当地提供了职业教育和培训。
徐涛表示，“我们之所以选择中国有色矿业集团，是因为它是中国的一个优势产业，也是投资的重点产业。去年，我们向冈比亚派遣了大约20名职业教师，进行为期3个月的教学。我们提供了包括仪器技师在内的五种不同职业的六门培训课程。来自冈比亚的近100名技术人员参加了这次培训。”
“实际上我们的努力已经取得了回报。我们除了为当地学生和技术人员提供培训课程外，还积极为当地企业提供技术支持，帮助他们解决问题。今年，培训课程的规模将会更大。今年5月，我们已经派出了大约30名教师，我们收到了冈比亚的要求,他们需要三个班级，这将比去年多三倍。”
“职业教育对于志在拓展海外业务的企业来说至关重要。在铁路通信和农业方面，很多公司都在积极地与我们取得联系，要求我们为当地人提供职业教育培训。”
徐涛还表示，这将有利于中国进一步对外开放。“下一步，我们将扩展提供职业教育以及展开相关合作的国家的范围。”
中国正在寻求加强与非洲在产能方面的合作。“有两种方式进行合作。首先是我们与当地公司合作。”他补充说，这些公司负责提供上课的场地或教室，而中国政府则负责提供课程和教师。“我们提供老师去非洲国家培训学生，同时我们也邀请非洲国家的学生来中国参加培训。第二种合作方式是我们与鲁班研究所或学校开展合作。例如，我们开办了“鲁班工坊”。“鲁班工坊”的目的就是在中国的职业学校、大学以及非洲国家的技术学校间展开合作，建立一个联合项目。该项目既可以在学校外独立存在，也可以在学校里开展合作。
寻求职业教育发展途径
为了进一步促进职业教育在尼日利亚的发展，观察家们建议建立职业大学，让那些非特权阶层的人能够接受更高层次的教育。
一位已经退休的原尼日利亚教育部高级官员说：“鉴于现在年轻人接受职业教育的热情高涨，我们的课程必须要被设计得更加实用，同时，政府要奖励那些选择接受职业教育的学生，这样他们才会去接受职业教育而不是从事一份白领或政府部门的工作。”
尼日利亚需要更多熟练技术人员来帮助该国发展电力、计算机、网络和电话线路等。同时，尼日利亚也需要更多的熟练技工、卡车司机、木匠、水管工、簿记员和文员。
“接受职业教育的好处就是你可以成为受过教育的职业人士。而不是那些没有受过教育，没有独立工作能力的人。这些问题都可以通过上学得到解决，学校能够以正确的方式教授他们生存技能，同时接受教育也能使他们以一种更有效的方式为别人提供服务。”另一位尼日利亚联邦教育部的副主任说。
尼日利亚联合招生和入学考试委员会表示，在2012年的统一大学入学考试中有150多万考生报名参加，在这150万考生中，有1,048,314人有资格申请大学。那么剩下的那些没有申请资格的考生们怎么办？
一份名为“尼日利亚的职业教育”的在线报告指出，尽管职业培训对国家的发展做出了巨大的贡献，尼日利亚却并没有利用好本国的职业教育。
因此，Toscany学院建议，将一些职业学校纳入到以高等教育为基础的教育计划中作为国家发展政策的中心部分。这表明，尼日利亚希望有更多的公民能够成为合格的就业者，以此来解决国家的贫困问题，并最大程度地发展国家经济。
该报告称“尼日利亚的进步在于公民的生产力和素质教育的提高，而职业教育则是其中的关键！”
这份报告强调了经验丰富的汽车技师和司机、木匠、水管工、电工等技术人员在国家发展中所起到的重要作用以及国家发展对这一类人员的需求。
报告认为，当前，尼日利亚社会对接受大学教育的狂热心态阻碍了那些在职业技术上更具有非凡天赋的人获取更多经济利益的机会。
报告中还写道:“如果每个人都成了大学毕业生，并且在大学毕业后没有这样的行业或职业中心雇用他们，那么事实上这样是弊大于利的。”
帮助尼日利亚人提高其在农业和工业上的职业技能，不仅有助于促进白领工作的迅速发展，同时也能促进大学的快速发展，从而降低失业率。这将有助于建立一个良性发展的社会。
总而言之，历史研究表明，德国、中国和印度等国的经济发展都是建立在职业教育的基础上的。
尼日利亚不能再忽视职业教育的重要性，并且需要在教育方面优先考虑这一点。职业技术学位的建立能使职业教育对尼日利亚人更具吸引力吗? 或者这么说，在课程结构以及内容已经有所改善的基础上，理工类学院能对学生能更加具有吸引力吗? 尼日利亚可以通过与其他国家在职业教育领域开展合作，分享经验，促进职业教育的发展。现在，在穆罕默杜布哈里总统领导下的联邦政府已经在农业和工业上进行了多样化的发展，并挽救了国家的经济。鉴于总统被认为是一名技术官员，他是否会推动职业教育全面提升来改善国家的经济呢? 在这个问题上，只有时间才能告诉我们答案。（编辑：常浩）
Vocational Education Fast Fading in Nigeria
By Bukola Ogunsina, Journalist of the newspaper Leadership of Nigeria; Photo by Bukola Ogunsina
Nigerians are recognised for their thirstto be educated, harnessing university degrees and going on to be experts intheir chosen fields across the international globe as well as domestically.However, the degrees and skills that comes with vocational education toencourage self reliance, reduce unemployment and drive development is sadlylacking in the country.
Nigeria is not only recognised as the mostpopulous nation in Africa, but as a country whose citizens covet goodeducation. Without a university degree, one is often perceived by society asdoomed where the career ladder is concerned. As a result vocational educationhas to continuously choke in the dust left by the speedy rush by Nigerians toobtain a university degree.
The reason for the lack of vocationaleducation in Nigeria points at the disinterest of the Nigerian populace invocation as a formal education and the government not making it attractiveenough for youths to embrace it as a form of higher learning.
Thesaurus’s dictionary.com definesvocational education as an ‘educational training that provides practical experiencein a particular occupational field, as agriculture, home economics, orindustry.’
Vocation is acquired by learning andspecialising in a skill. It is more about an individual’s know-how. If properlyutilised, it can be positive for a country’s growth. For example theindustrialisation sector such as textile industries, home economics, commerce,fashion design. Skills can also be taught in agriculture where we have farmerswho need to be trained to work on the farm for better yield and miners who needto be trained for mining, all tuned at refining the natural resources we havefor development purposes. It is essentially seen to prepare people forprofitable employment as sub professionals in recognised occupations.
Practical training or vocational skillsreportedly originated from Scandinavia. Easy to imagine a Viking wielding ahomemade axe and cross bow, knowing fully well his or her means of livelihooddepends on it, than thousands of Nigerian individuals willingly flockingtowards formally learning a vocation. Perhaps it is the changing times andadvent of civilization that has resulted in the scarcity of vocation inNigeria. History in Nigeria, recorded craftsmen like the Nok people and theterracotta sculptures they made discovered in 1928. Also, Ladi Kwali ahousehold name known for her skills in the art of pottery. Vocations thatcontributed towards a livelihood.
From information gathered, the year 1990brought about the development of three distinct educational systems in Nigeria,namely; the indigenous system, the Quaranic schools, and formal European-styleeducational institutions. By the mid nineteenth century, the Christianmissionaries introduced the western educational system in Nigeria. Thecommencement began slowly but surely during the colonial period.
In 1916 Federick Luggard, the firstgovernor of an amalgamated Nigeria established a school inspectorate. Emphasiswas placed on theory rather than practical, as students had to passexaminations to succeed. That unconsciously informed the preference for westerneducation over informally learning a skill. The first six years of primaryeducation are mandatory in Nigeria, before secondary education, to be followedby higher education. And as vocationaleducation was not deemed formal, and worsened by the lack of interest peopleshowed, instead flocking towards universities in a bid for white collar jobs,it was neither given the necessary attention, nor prioritised.
The Ministry of Education oversees theeducational structure in Nigeria, while the state local governments regulatepolicies for state controlled public education and state schools at regionallevels. Local statistics in the past have shown that vocational education hassolved the problems of unemployment by 70 per centin Nigeria and furtherestablished the ideology of self-reliance. Individuals involved in a vocationalskill can take raw resources and transport them to valuable products withouthaving to go through theoretical studies at higher level. Today, mostuniversity curriculums are theoretical as opposed to being practical. And wherepolytechnics which are practical based are meant to keep the balance, the scalehas tipped over, due to the mad rush for universities which are regarded moresuperior due to their ‘higher’ degrees.
The former Governor of Lagos State, thebusiness capital of Nigeria, Babatunde Fashola’s words when he indicated that800 workers would be needed for the Lagos State light rail project, whichrequired 510 out of the 800 being skilled manpower, still resonates today.
“If we do not prepare our children to takethe jobs, we will be like Dubai that imported all the labour that built Dubaifrom Malaysia, from Singapore and from the Philippines” adding that the moneyearned building the beautiful emirate had helped build the economies of thecountries who built it.
Fashola had also stressed on the importanceof acquiring technical skills to improve on housing, electricity, and watersupply, among others. “Who will build the houses and the dams? Our country isstruggling to feed, we need to invest in agriculture. It will involveprocessing, canning and export. If we don’t have the technical skills tomaintain the tractors, it will not work,” He had stated then. And as if he hada crystal ball to project into the future, Nigeria will need more manpower,vocationally skilled technicians as it diversifies into sectors likeagriculture and manufacture.
In 2012, a report by ‘After School Africa’noted that the Nigerian federal government approved 86 Innovation andVocational Enterprising Institutions to award National Innovative Diploma (NID)and National Vocational Diploma (NVD) to participants. Not much is furtherbeing said about this project, nor a follow up of results given to the public.
There are over a hundred polytechnics andfederal colleges of education in Nigeria privately and government owned, with alow number of students enrolled when compared to university. Several of thesestudents still aiming to write the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Boardexams (JAMB) at tertiary level, a prerequisite to getting into university.
At the moment China is exploring ways tostrengthen its vocational education sector, and at the same time working inline with President Xi Jinping’s vision of the One Belt and One RoadInitiative. The Ministry of Education is working with this initiative toestablish ties, through initiating people to people communication througheducation.
An official of the Ministry of Education inBeijing, Mr Xu Tao said during an interview, “With the economic development andindustrialisation in African countries, talents in acquired skills are short insupply. Cooperation in vocational education is very active,” he explained.
“The cooperation with Nigeria is also inprogress. According to my knowledge, we have already had some official meetingsand some non official meetings and intra school communications. Just like Imentioned. Some enterprises in Nigeria are also providing trainings. But it isalso true that the vocational training of China is still young. We are stillexploring in this area and we are willing to conduct more communications withAfrican countries, including Nigeria,” he said.
To implement capacity cooperation, theMinistry signed in China Nonferrous Mining Corporation (CNMC) as a pelletenterprise for the going out strategy and started the project in Gambia.
The Ministry is currently exploring newmodels of vocational cooperation in education and Nigeria could strengthenpartnership in this area through more Chinese enterprises investing in businessand the local workforce through vocation training to create a win-wincooperation. “Wherever the Chinese company goes in the world, vocationaleducation goes there to train technicians in talents for the local country.Actually we have two purposes. One is to first improve quality of operations inthese Chinese companies. Second purpose is to improve technical levels oftechnicians of local countries to realise a winning cooperation,” he said.
“Forexample the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education has helpedEthiopia to build a vocational school and provide assistance for the vocationaleducation in Ethiopia,” he said.
The Chinese government has provided trainingof personnel for about 100 countries, as it pays more attention to the goingout of vocational education.
“CNMC and eight vocational schools went toGambia to conduct vocational education and training.
“The reason why we chose CNMC is because itis an advantageous industry of China, and it is also a priority industry interms of investments.
“Last year we sent about 20 vocationalteachers to Gambia for three months. We have provided six training sessions offive different occupations including instrument technicians. Nearly about 100technicians from the Gambia’s side participated in the training.”
“Actually our efforts have paid off…. apart from training courses forlocal students and technicians, the teachers have also actively providedtechnical support for the local companies solving their problems.”
“Thisyear the scale of the training class will be bigger. We have already sent about30 teachers this May and we have already received demand from Gambia. Theyrequire about three classes which is three times more than last year.
“The importance of going out of vocationaleducation is vital to the going out of enterprises. A lot of companies in termsof railway communication and agriculture are actively reaching to us requiringus to conduct vocational education for locals.”
He also said this was good for the openingup of China. “For next step we will continue to expand in the areas that weteach and also the countries that we cooperate with.”
China is seeking more capacity cooperationwith Africa. “There are two ways of cooperation. The first is that we cooperatewith local companies,” he said, adding that the companies provide the space orclassrooms while the Chinese government provides curriculum and teachers.
“We provide teachers to go and train thestudents there or sometimes we invite the students to come to China for thetraining. The second method is that we are also working with institutions andalso Luban schools.
“Forexample we have Luban Institute. The concept of this institute is thatvocational schools based in China cooperating with universities or vocationalschools, technical schools in African countries to establish a joint programme.It can be a dependent one, outside the campus, or it can be inside the campus.This kind of cooperation does exist.
“Luban is a carpenter/technician, at thesame time he is an inventor. He is the Chinese version of Thomas Eddison in theUnited States, hence its represents technology and expertise. We already havethis type of Luban joint institute in Thailand. We cooperated with a localvocational school in Thailand. The practice of the vocational joint Lubaninstitute in Thailand process is that we copy all the models that we use inChina in Thailand. Of course in the process of teaching we will consider thelocal situation and adapt to it. And this programme is going to be conducted inIndia, Indonesia and the United Kingdom. And of course we will actively promotethis Luban institute development in Africa to share experiences,” he said.
In a bid to further bolster vocation in theNigerian education, observers have suggested that vocational universities shouldbe established to give the less privileged the ability to acquire education ata higher level.
A retired civil servant who was a seniorofficial at the Ministry of Education said, “For youths to be interested invocational education, our curriculum has to be restructured towards pragmaticstudying, and then the government has to give incentives to students that comeout of vocational education, so that they can set them up and give thembusinesses instead of training them towards getting white collar jobs orgovernment jobs,” she stated.
The country needs more skilled techniciansto assist with electricity, Computers, Web and Network, telephone circuits andlines. The country needs more skilled mechanics, truck drivers and carpenters,plumbers, book keepers and Clerks.
“The advantage is that you have educated,vocational professionals. Instead of having those who are not educated, whocannot draw or plan but who can only learn the work through staying with theirmasters. This is then addressed in schools and the schools are able to teachthem in the right way, so they can be educated and will be able to providetheir services in an efficient manner,” Another former deputy director with theFederal Ministry of Education indicated.
The Joint Admissions and MatriculationBoard states that more than 1.5 million candidates registered for the 2012unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and 1,048,314 out of 1.5 millionwere eligible for university. What became of the remaining not eligible?
Anonline report titled ‘Vocational Education in Nigeria’ by Toscany Academystates that in spite of the obvious contribution of vocational training to thedevelopment of some nations, Nigeria has not been able to take advantage ofthis. The report stated that the neglect of vocational education is one of themain reasons there is massive unemployment and paucity in Nigeria.
Thus, Toscany Academy suggests, theincorporation of a type of school to work- based education programme ininstitutions of higher learning as a central part of national advancementpolicy. This it states, would go a long way towards making more peopleemployable and employed, and as such alleviate poverty levels in Nigeria andenhance the nation’s economic development at large.
“The progress of Nigeria lies in theproductivity of its citizens and quality education and genuine vocationalprograms hold the key!” the report said.
It went on to stress the importance andneed for experienced car technicians and motor vehicle drivers, carpenters,plumbers, electricians and so on for proper and adequate functioning.
The report made an argument that thepresent obsession for university education in Nigeria hinders the economicdevelopment prospect of the masses who are better endowed with vocation skillsthan intellectualism.
“If everybody became a university graduateand there are no such industries or vocational centers established to employthem after graduation we would be doing ourselves more harm than good,” thereport read.
Training Nigerians skilfully in the art oftechnology, agriculture and industry will aid diffusion of the rush for whitecollar jobs as well as the rush to universities, thus reducing the rate ofunemployment. This will help build a healthy society.
In summary,past historical studies bypundits reveal that the economies of Germany, China and India among others,were built on vocational education.
Nigeria can no longer ignore the importance ofvocation and needs to prioritise this where education is concerned. Canestablishment of vocational university degrees help make vocation moreattractive to Nigerians? Or better still, improve an already establishedfoundation and make polytechnics more attractive to students? Again, Nigeriacan go into partnership in the area of vocational education with othercountries, sharing ideas to drive the sector into a kind of Aladdin’s lamp withthe genie in this case being vocation, thus making all of the above suggestionssuccessful.
Recently, the federal government underPresident Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has zoomed in on agriculture andindustry to diversify and save the nation’s economy. Given that the Presidentis regarded a technocrat, will he drive vocational education into full force toenhance these sectors and improve the economy? At this point, only time willtell.