Mr Dele Ashiru has criticized the notion that university education is intended for employability, claiming that graduates are expected to be labor employers.
During an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Lagos State (UNILAG) branch, made the remark.
“There is a fundamental assumption that is wrong: university education is not for employability. That one is basic,” he said during the show. “If you have a good university education, you should be an employer of labour.”
He claims that university education is not for everyone, adding that only a few people in wealthy countries reach that level.
“If you look at systems all over the world, only a certain percentage of citizens in the country should be able to go to a university. The rest should go to what they call a polytechnic, a monotechnic, a technical college, etc. such that by the time they finish from those institutions of learning, as it was in Nigeria in the past, they can move into the industry as artisans and all that,” the lecturer said.
The love for university education in the country, according to the ASUU UNILAG leader, is unnecessary; a situation he believes does not bode well for Nigeria.
“And that’s why the pressure is on university education. Check any developed country in the world,” Mr Ashiru explained. “Those who populate their universities are not from their citizens.”
Source: Channels TV
