Unemployment fuels education apathy in Nigeria, says minister

The Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, has blamed the high rate of unemployment among graduates for the declining interest in education in Nigeria.

He made this remark at a workshop on creating a plan for the Nigerian education system in Abuja on Thursday.

The workshop, themed “Renewing our hope through education”, was organized by the federal ministry of education in collaboration with other stakeholders.

The aim was to develop practical and feasible strategies to make the Nigerian education system more responsive to the needs of the society and the economy. The workshop was attended by representatives from various sectors, such as academia, civil society, private sector, media, and development partners.

Sununu said, “Education, you would all agree, is one sector of development that Nigerians have been known to speak with one voice in terms of its importance to development. However, this recognition of its importance is yet to translate to tangible results that show that an educated person stands a better chance of living a fulfilled life.

“This disconnect, between purpose and reality, could be said to be responsible for inadequate attention to the sector, wrong perceptions of the relative importance of the different forms and types of education. Indeed, I must also say that the inability of our youths to gain employment after going through the rigors of academic may be responsible for a gradually building dis-interest in the pursuit of education.

“To curtail this trend and make Nigerian Education responsive to everyday realities and beneficial to the individual as well as the nation is what the Renewed Hope Agenda for the Education Sector is all about.”