Ambode, Others for Curriculum Reform Summit in Lagos

As part of efforts to address the problem of perennial job crises in the country, the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode will lead a team of eminent Nigerians to re-examine secondary and tertiary school curricular at the second annual Blossom career and entrepreneurship summit which will hold on June 2 and 3, 2016 in Lagos.

The summit with the theme, ‘Curriculum Re-examination: Skills Opportunities and the Dilemma of Academic Ambitions’, is designed to close the wide gap between unemployable graduates yearly churned out of Nigerian tertiary institutions and the abundant but untapped skills potential in the country.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, Best of the World Limited, organisers of the summit, Mrs. Joy Chinwokwu, the immediate past Secretary-General and Chief Executive of the Association of African Universities, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede will lead the faculty to dissect the problems and proffer a lasting solution.

Jegede, who is also the founding Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), doubles as summit chairman and keynote speaker on the topic: ‘Global Job Crises: Curriculum Misfits, Reform Perspectives and Strategic Imperatives’.
Also delivering a paper titled ‘Why the Private Sector should be Interested’, will be Mr. Uyi Akpata, the Country Senior Partner for PWC, Nigeria and Regional Senior Partner for the West Market Area.

His paper will, among others, give insights into the cost of retraining misfit recruits.
The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offence Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, will speak on ‘Education Fraud in Nigeria: Character, Consequences and Panacea.’

Leading educators to the summit is a prominent proprietor of Lagos Anglican Schools, the Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos West, Rt. Rev. James Olusola Odedeji, whose major concern is to re-invent the traditional values and ethics of Nigeria’s glory academic years. His paper will identify lost moral codes and consequent impacts and burdens in Nigeria’s education sector, especially the shift of emphasis from knowledge-based acquisition to certification and vainglory.

Other expected participants include ministers of education; the director general of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN); directors of state ministries of education; PTAs; students of secondary and tertiary institutions; owners of schools; parents, CEOs of Nigerian and international organisations, among others.

The summit is aimed at charting a focused direction towards tackling the job crises in Nigeria by advocating curriculum reviews in secondary and tertiary institutions. It also seeks to inspire students in secondary and tertiary institutions and their guardians to focus on careers and skills with prospects for employment, in addition to curtailing fraudulent practices in the education sector, especially those that promote the acquisition of certificates without commensurate knowledge, among others.