Worried by the growing number of unemployed graduates in Nigeria, educators under the aegis ofthe International Educational Management Network (IEDUMAN) said it is determined to build a good number of entrepreneurs among Nigerian youths, to enable them become job creators rather than job seekers.
They believe that coming together under one umbrella will help them promote entrepreneurship and productive education among Nigerian students, which will in turn produce self reliant graduates with productive career in the future.
Onyeka Jaivbo-Ojigbo, President of IEDUMAN, who spoke with BDSUNDAY on the sideline of the maiden edition of IEDUMAN Education and Skill Fair held in Lagos recently, described the International Education Management Network, as a platform for educators to get in touch with one another, have access to more resources and learn international best practices that would move the education sector forward.
“Nigeria’s education system is not doing well and is not where it should be. This is why we created this platform with the main aim of changing the state of affair through the coming together of educators, learning good practices and fashioning out the best way to develop the sector,” Jaivbo-Ojigbo said.
She pointed out that the unique selling point of the concluded education and skill fair is that it recognises and promotes productive education that de-emphasises going to school to obtain just certificate without having any job to do, but emphasises going to school and coming out to learn additional skill and becoming productive in life.
According to her, the education fair brought skill educators together to showcase what they have to teach people who were part of the fair.
“We also have a programme called ‘Thank God is Friday,’ designed to bring back the reading culture among our youths. Internet is not encouraging people to read anymore because once you click on the Internet, Google will give you answers. Therefore, TGIF programme enables the group to go to the grass root and try to bring back the reading values,” she explained.
She noted that the internet is a good thing but the aim of the programme is to teach the children how to make appropriate use of the internet, adding that the group has put measures in place to encourage children to read and if possible “we want to have an educational resource centre and a proper library for kids particularly. We will start by advocating for reading one book a month and before you know it we will be getting back the reading culture.”
Adams Onuka, a Professor from the University of Ibadan, who doubles as the chairman of the advisory board of IEDUMAN, also told BD Sunday that IEDUMAN is a network that brings professional educators together and provide a forum for them to contribute to the development of both Nigeria’s educational system and that of the international communities.
Onuka, who expressed worry on the poor reading habits among Nigerian students, said that building an effective reading habit among Nigerian youths is one of the problems IEDUMAN hopes to address. “We want to create a platform that will bring people together and encourage students and learners to read. We have also devised a method that can take children away from making wrong use of the internet and ensuring that they become usefully engaged.”
“What we are trying to do is to let everybody know that everything we do in life is education. Education is life and learning to apply is very important, meaning that when you learn, you need to also apply the knowledge and that is what makes you educated. We believed that being educated is more than going to school to obtain the highest certification. This is why we want Nigerians to key into what the IEDUMAN is doing,” Onuka stated.
On the importance of education to human development, Onuka cited South Korea that gave education a priority as example of countries that have leveraged on the benefits education provides to grow their level of development.
“Today, South Korea has become a tourist attraction such that you would not believe that it was worse than Nigeria in the 1950s.Our network was set up for people to know that they can contribute to the development of the education system and the nation in general by investing their time and money to promote education,” he added.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
