Experiential Learning: Building Wealth of the Nation

 Peter Mbah

The title of this lecture, “Experiential Learning: Building the Wealth of the Nation”, has been carefully chosen and was largely inspired by the strong correlation between education and development. It is fitting that a lot of the people gathered here are students.

What future do our young people dream of? It is probable that the desire to emigrate is a priority dream for most. The word “japa” is a major part of the Nigerian reality. It has come to define the aspirations of our youth.

The reasons, of course, are fairly predictable. Let’s just say that there haven’t been as much economic opportunities – or jobs – as there are people in desperate need of gainful employment.

You may be familiar with my exemplary story of two young men – Emeka and Ikechukwu. Buffeted by life’s harsh realities, Emeka opted for the familiar but perilous exodus via the Mediterranean in search of presumably greener pastures, but his quest ended tragically like many others. Ikechukwu chose to apply his inventive acuity to meet the necessities around him. This anecdote calls attention to the social debacle that “japa” represents.

Our young people must not merely think outside the box – they have to blow up the box and imagine new possibilities. Rather than wait for jobs, our youth must create jobs! This begs the question: how skilled, innovative, and globally competitive are our university graduates?

Why do Nigerian universities seldom feature on the global ranking list of world’s best universities? Why have they seemed perennially unable to become the ideas factory which universities ought to be? Why are our universities not producing inventive graduates like Ikechukwu?

The answers to these questions lie in many inconvenient truths, amongst which is the fact that the learning in our schools, from Basic to Tertiary, has for years not imbued our young people with productive skills and competencies. This is a root cause of our underdevelopment.

All through history, knowledge has always been the prime lever for progress, from the Stone Age to the Industrial Revolution – and it will be no less so as the world gets in the grip of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

What role will Enugu youth play in the story of this emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution? What role will Enugu State universities play in preparing our youth to be part of the narrative of a new world order?

Edward Paice warns us in his book that sub-Saharan Africa is generating the greatest proportion of youth in the world, even as the populations of other continents are shrinking.

Our present task is to turn our young and populous demography into advantageous human capital.

That way, we can create new narratives! And I’m happy to tell you that we are already doing that! Let me share a true story, about Precious, a 13-year-old girl from Owo. Like many children in our communities, Precious has dreams that stretch far beyond the walls of her father’s house and her traditional classroom.

But for years, her potential was locked behind a system that taught her to memorize rather than to innovate, to repeat rather than to question. Like millions of children in Nigeria, Precious was in school, but had limited chance to acquire quality and transformative education.

The Enugu Smart Green School changed Precious’ story. Today, Precious is no longer bound by the limitations of a conventional education system. As a student at the Enugu Smart Green School, Precious learns by solving real-world problems that matter to her community.

Her classroom is not just a place of learning—it is a hub of creativity, innovation, and action. At the Enugu Smart Green School, Owo, Precious worked with her peers and teachers to develop a water purification system that now supplies drinking water to the school. At the Enugu Smart Green School Owo, Precious worked with her peers and teachers to develop a model for a Smart Farm that now supplies eggs to 846 schoolchildren, three days per week.

This transformation is part of a larger vision—to create an Experiential Learning ecosystem that connects every level of education, from primary schools to vocational schools and universities, to a dynamic pipeline of workforce development, innovation, and sustainability.

In a globalized world, competition is by no means local, and the meritocracy of ideas is the underlining philosophy that holds sway. To produce globally competitive youth, who can remain here in Enugu and yet, “japa” their skills globally, our education ecosystem must immediately shift from rote learning to Experiential Learning!

Education must be tailored to meet the exigencies of present needs and aspire to solve future challenges. Education is fundamentally, the cornerstone of our progress, the bedrock upon which our future stands.

History is replete with many compelling cases for the embrace of innovation. Many years ago, making phone calls was a harrowing experience that usually entailed waiting in a long queue. Of course, getting to the front of the queue is no guarantee of a successful phone call. There might not be a dialing tone – despite the long wait. But with the emergence of GSM technology, those stories now exist as distant memories from a bygone age. With mobile phones, we now have the world in our pockets.

The point is that innovation is the fuel of development. But development is never wished into existence. It thrives in an atmosphere of deep respect for learning and pursuit of knowledge to improve the human condition.

It is no coincidence the countries that invest the most in building a qualitative and experiential education ecosystem are the world’s leading economies – United States of America, China, and European Union countries like Germany and Netherlands, are well-known examples.

So, why are we not fully leveraging the solutions that a wholesome education offers to launch our society onto a new trajectory that fosters growth in critical sectors?

Education has long been seen as a pathway to job opportunities, but today, it must also be for us, a pathway to innovation and economic leapfrog. For this to happen, Enugu must lead in Experiential Learning in Africa. Our students at all levels — from early childhood to tertiary education — must be equipped with the tools to not only adapt to the future but to shape it!

Experiential Learning ensures that education is deeply connected to the challenges and opportunities of the real world. It fosters critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. It empowers students to see themselves not as passive learners but as active problem-solvers.

As an ecosystem, a flexible and scalable model that can be applied across wide-ranging contexts—from Smart Green Schools and Vocational Schools to Universities, Experiential Learning is bigger than an educational model. It is a strategy for workforce development, innovation, and sustainability.

We should think of Experiential Learning as an engine that will enable our education system to drive workforce development and productivity. We should see it as the missing link between education, industrialization, and GDP growth.

By embedding Experiential Learning into our education ecosystem, from Basic to Tertiary education, we are creating a seamless pipeline where students progress from foundational learning to practical innovation.

Imagine a university student working on a project to design renewable energy solutions for rural communities. Imagine a student in a Science and Technical Vocational School developing skills in precision agriculture to boost food security. These are not hypothetical scenarios; they are the outcomes of an Experiential Learning ecosystem that we are already building here in Enugu State.

If kids like Precious could achieve Experiential Learning in our Smart Green Schools, why would our universities not deliver Experiential Learning to our youth?

Our Experiential Learning model aligns education with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), equipping students with skills to tackle critical challenges such as: Energy: Training students to innovate in renewable energy technologies; Agriculture: Equipping them with skills for sustainable farming practices and ICT and Technology: Building capacities in robotics, AI, and digital entrepreneurship.

Moreover, we have been very intentional and bold in our commitment to Experiential Learning. As you know, we have commenced construction of our pilot Center for Experiential Learning and Innovation (CELI) at the Enugu State College of Education Technical.

It is our vision that every Tertiary Institution in Enugu State will possess such a center which, in addition to equipping teachers and professors with the pedagogical skills to deliver experiential education to our children, will also serve as a bridge between education and industry.

The Center for Experiential Learning and Innovation connects students and teachers to the tools and partnerships that they need to develop technological competencies, innovate and pilot real-world solutions, and drive economic growth and sustainable development.

For us, it is a no-brainer. Our universities must adapt and harness Experiential Learning to change our story. We owe this much to our young people. Give them a chance!

It is time to change the development narrative. For too long, we have looked outward for solutions to our challenges. But the truth is clear: those who are closest to the challenges are best poised to lead the solutions.

And truth be told; Experiential Learning is our oldest traditional system of education – much akin to the Apprenticeship system established by our forefathers – whereby knowledge is transmitted through practice, and knowledge thus gained, fostered innovation and growth.

As a former colony, this country inherited a design of education rooted in rote learning and mimicry. We gained political independence. The time is overdue to emancipate our education system. Like the Sankofa, we must look to our cherished heritage to forge a formidable future of innovation, progress, and prosperity.

This is not an impossible task. We have proof. Our smart teachers, like Ogbu Esther, who specializes in Robotics at the Enugu Smart Green School Owo, are already demonstrating the type of leadership we need by guiding students to address local needs. Our students, like Precious, are proving that age is no barrier to innovation. And our communities are showing that with the right support, they can be powerful agents of change.

We are not just talking about improving education; this is about empowering people to lead their own development. It is about moving away from a narrative of dependency and towards a future of self-reliance and innovation.

This is a challenge to the government, and universities, as much as it is to our students and our youth for whom “japa” constitute the single most compelling aspiration.

We must prepare our youth for changing tides, lest they be lost in a tide. ”Japa” may be a consequence of longstanding sociological stagnation. And the quest for social mobility is a natural human trait. Yet, all the great inventions the world has seen over the years had arisen, not from a sense of sufficiency, but to fill an abject want. Necessity, it is said, is the mother of invention. As a state, we have necessities, and we have human capital.

Developing our human capital has been the highest preoccupation of our present government. The degree to which we meet this task is measurable by our investment in ensuring access to quality education and healthcare.

As I have often emphasized, nations seldom rise above the standard of their public education. And the wealth of a nation depends upon the health of its people. Both education and health define the quality of the human capital – the truest measure of every nation’s true wealth.

So, why is it that infrastructural development often tends to be implemented at a pace that is disproportionate to investment in intangible resources such as education?

The reason is fairly easy to infer. The sheer physicality of road infrastructure means that they yield outcomes that are instant, whereas the results arising from investment in education are not immediately discernible. The plaudits are thus immediate. So, governments – not all, I dare say – invest in quick fixes like physical infrastructure, to the detriment of sectors such as education and health.

Instructively, the most impactful policies are not necessarily those that create the biggest buzz. But they offer the clearest indices of human development.

Nothing transforms lives and paves a path to a promising future like quality education. It is the reason why one-third of Enugu State’s total annual budget went into funding education. This translates to roughly twice UNESCO’s recommended benchmark of 15% – 20%. What this means is that for every 100 Naira spent, 33 Naira goes to the education budget.

This funding has enabled us to implement both infrastructural and pedagogical overhaul of our education system.

Our will has enabled us to begin a transition from a system where pupils seemed, to all intents and purposes, to be merely going through the motions of learning, to an ecosystem of Experiential Learning.

Through our Basic Education Smart Green Schools, we have introduced the “cut-off point”, whereby we target children from age 3, and begin to inculcate in them social habits, health habits, fine motor skills, and problem-solving competencies, introducing them to an experiential education system that helps them to navigate our rapidly evolving technological knowledge-driven world.

After three years of Early Childhood Education, having completed Nursery 1-3, our children complete Basic 1-9. During their twelve-year academic study in the Enugu Smart Green Schools, our children learn with interactive digital whiteboards, tablets, and computers; they are immersed in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual/Augmented Reality, and Internet of Things.

They practice technology and scientific experiments in well-equipped modern laboratories. They collaborate with Civil Society Organizations and Industry Partners to curate Innovation Challenges and solve community problems aligned with Sustainable Development Goals.

I dare say that the quality of our Smart Green School compares with the best schools anywhere in the world.

Upon graduating from the Smart Green Schools, about one-quarter of our children will proceed to Technical and Vocational Schools focusing on key competencies like Industrial and Information Technology, Building and Fabrication Engineering, as well as Industrial Agriculture, with the objective to become respected and skilled professionals, highly valued for their expertise.

We have commenced the construction of 8 Science, Technical, and Vocational Schools across Enugu State. This includes the Government Technical College (GTC), Enugu. We intend to restore the former glory of this school established in 1948.

The remainder 75% of graduates from the Smart Green Schools will proceed to Smart Senior Secondary Schools, where they would continue with Experiential Learning, in preparation for Scientific, Arts, and Professional Studies in any of our Tertiary Institutions.

As you can see, our children will come through a pipeline of Experiential Learning. Our universities must not only be ready for them, but should lead research, development, and innovation in Experiential Learning.

As a matter of fact, we hereby announce as a policy that all state-owned tertiary institutions in Enugu State must henceforth deliver Experiential Learning to our children. We want to see this change reflected in planning, budget, curriculum reform, assessment and promotions, as well as research.

We must not forget that as Africans, we had been discounted in the Narratives and Histories of the making of this world order, and we must now embrace Disruptive Innovation to ensure that we write the next chapter in the Narrative of a new world system.

With a population of over 200 million and a median age of 18 years, Nigeria has the 6th largest population of youth in the world. About 70 percent of the population is under 30, and almost half is under the age of 15.

Among our teeming youth are some Emekas who continue to look to “japa” as salvation. But more and more, we are seeing numerous Ikechukwus, who are applying their intuitive intellect to thrive here at home.

For us, the youth bulge presents numerous opportunities. The inherent potential in our youth bulge can be glimpsed in the fact that a largely young population best guarantees a steady supply stream for our state’s workforce. Our most pressing task now is to ensure that the youth bulge oils the wheels of productivity.

The solution goes back to the core of this lecture – experiential education!

It also would entail the adoption of a new orientation in our university system that upends the current trend where students only work on projects during their final year. This is too perfunctory and performative.

From the First Year, students should be dealing with compelling social and economic real-life issues as part of their academic requirements for the award of degrees. That way, students become solution-providers, and the universities will truly become hubs of creativity that they were conceived to be.

Given the very disproportionate ratio of students that universities are graduating annually to available jobs, the question has been asked if we have somehow over-idealized education. The answer is an emphatic NO.

All through our history, the benefits of education have always been self-evident. In our colonial experience, it was a weapon of liberation perfectly wielded in the fight for independence.

It equally proved a convenient tool of development as premiers of Nigeria’s defunct regions committed substantial funds towards their citizens’ education.

To a large extent, the varying levels of advancement attained by the regions in the pre – and post-independence Nigeria were reflective of the amount of resources that each region had deployed to the education sector.

So, education will always remain an enduring legacy. The challenge, however, lies in developing an educational ecosystem that reflects the demands of the changing times. Today, it is the knowledge economy that reigns supreme. The indicators literally stare us in the face.

Coal was the single most important element of the Industrial Revolution. But few weeks ago, the United Kingdom – the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution – shut down the last of its coal-fired power stations.

Let’s think about that. If that doesn’t serve as an instructive lesson, nothing else will.

An education system that fosters disruptive innovation is the solution we need to achieve a leap out of a cycle of underdevelopment. The existential crisis is all around us. Look at the folly of our-near total and decades-long dependence on export of natural resources and agricultural produce. This has made our nation acutely vulnerable to the vagaries of the international market.

Consider this: From being the prime contributor to Nigeria’s economy for decades, oil has fallen off its “glorious” perch. Instructively, the ICT sector has been gaining ascendancy in the last ten years. In 2023, for instance, ICT contribution to Nigeria’s GDP was 16.7 percent. The figure for 2024 looks likely to rise, given the sector’s 19.8 percent second-quarter contribution.

On a similar note, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is projected to contribute up to $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

So, what would be the next economic turn and how do we prepare for it? As we invest in education, we must be conscious of nurturing an educational curriculum that caters to our pressing development needs, while at the same time, prepares us to feature prominently in the narrative of the next global economic turning point.

As history shows, to achieve progress, we must challenge the status quo. We are now at a watershed moment in our history. To turn the page, to achieve quantum development, we must now rend the fabrics of complacency and do the unusual and the unexpected. Experiential learning gives us the window of opportunity. And our universities must drive the revolution.

Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow is no longer something we wait for—it is here. The challenges we face today, from climate change to unemployment, demand immediate action, and the boldness to think outside the box. The solutions lie in you—your ideas, your resilience, and your capacity to innovate.

With the Smart Green Schools, and an ecosystem of Experiential Learning, Enugu State will prove that education can be a catalyst for sustainable development.

We are building not just schools but a new model for development, one that positions education at the heart of economic growth and sustainability.

Let us not miss this moment. Let us invest in our teachers, our students, and our communities. Let us commit to a vision where every child, no matter where they are born, has the opportunity to lead and innovate.

Enugu is setting a bold example—not just for Nigeria but for the world. We are showing that education, when rooted in action, can unlock the true wealth of a nation.

Indeed, tomorrow is here!

*Being 1st Enugu State University of Science and Technology Distinguished Lecture Series delivered by Governor Mbah on Tuesday.