EDUCATION THAT CAN RAISE PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA

EDUCATION THAT CAN RAISE PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA Joel Babatunde Babalola Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Raising productivity means to increase quantity and quality of outputs per person

The Problematic • The Nigerian economy, with its huge labour force and considerable capital factor outlay, still shows symptoms of low productivity despite the various efforts by the government at improving the situation • It has therefore, become expedient to find ways to encourage high output in the domestic production sector • In this wise, the government has been making efforts to enhance performance and improve productivity. • In spite of various interventions, The issue of low productivity in the manufacturing, service sectors, public service and others has remained a major concern in Nigeria • http://www.productivitynigeria.info/npc_last_001.htm

The Theoretic • the relationship between education and productivity is complicated and constrained by many intervening variables including basic inputs • The basic-input theory explains that increase in productivity occurs by employing more basic inputssuch as labour, capital [physical and financial], and material. • The efficiency theory explains that, when basic inputs become limited, one complementary solution is to utilize the existing resources more efficiently. • Human capital theory lays emphasis on investment on people rather than on physical inputs to increase productivity and earnings • Investment in people can focus on health, head, heart and hands when the home ability is held constant • human capital theorists believe that education is good in developing the head, heart and hands of people in preparation for work and life

The Theoretical Framework

There is an overlapping relationship among non-human inputs, education and productivity of workers

Sweetman [2002] argued • Our great-grant-parents worked at least as hard as we do- • certainly they worked longer hours and far more strenuously on the average- • but their material well-being was lower. • This …is a result of productivity increases, and education has played a central role. • Working smarter involves…how society is organized [institutions], governance, government policies and property rights. • [p.158]

A Typology of Productivity Factors by Sweetman [2002] Education involves inculcation of the right attitudes, impartation of useful skills and acquisition of knowledge Education affects all the three factors affecting productivity through people Being child-centre, education is also a crucial determinant of labour productivity

Individual-level characteristics that education can influence to raise productivity of workers Home

Partial education that concentrates only on the development of the head is not likely to raise productivity as expected • One lesson from Sweetman’s assertion is that the difference in productivity between the traditional and the modern workers is not just as a result of having the innate ability to do work or being available for work, it is as result of improvement in academic characteristics of workers. • According to him, “Our great-grant-parents worked at least as hard [ability] as we do… they worked longer hours [availability] …but their material well-being [happiness] was lower. “ • It thus implies that the observed difference in productivity between the past and present generations of workers is mainly attributable to the difference in academic achievement which produces high skills and in the recent times, high technology

Education that is not well resourced with efficiently utilized physical and intangible inputs is not likely to raise productivity of workers

Data show that financial input and contribution of university education to productivity in Nigeria are related

Corruption in the education process-allocation, administration, admission, instruction, supervision, examination and graduation is likely to lead to low productivity of workers.

A nation where rural development is not a priority is not likely to witness improvement in agricultural productivity irrespective of any amount it expended on education • Agriculture used to be the main sector in Nigeria in the early sixties. Today, migration [owing to some environmental factors] has left the rural sector deserted and undeveloped. • Schultz [Lewin, 1993] studied the influence of environment [modernising and traditional] on the contribution of education to farmers’ productivity. • He defined traditional environment in terms of primitive technology, traditional farming practices and crops, and minimal reported levels of innovation. • He also defined modernising environments as those with access to new varieties of seeds, innovative farming practices, control of erosion, the availability of pesticides, fertilisers and farm machinery, access to extension services and the existence of market orientated production. • The results show that four years of primary education increased productivity by a mean value of 1.3% in traditional environments and 9.5% in modernising ones. • Increase in Productivity : Rural = 1 and Modernising = 10

Evidence from productive trends of the University of Ibadan reveals the need to rebrand the curriculum to inculcate culturally-accepted work ethics or the education of the heart

several researchers are now probing the link between spiritual capital and scholastic achievement, creativity and innovation. The world of business is not left out in the search for spiritual solutions to business problems [Kouzes and Posner, 2002], • Nigerians respect spirituality but the curriculum of schools pretends to be devoid of it. The National Policy on Education recognizes the use of indigenous language as a medium of instruction especially at the lower levels of education in the country but schools and their teachers do not implement this. Parents measure the mental development of their children through fluency in English Language to the detriment of the development of the thought process and enhancement of meaningfulness. • The use of indigenous language enhances the development of one’s identity (including one’s cultural identity) moving toward what many authors refer to as greater “authenticity;” how people construct knowledge through largely unconscious and symbolic processes, manifested in image, symbol, music, and other expressions of creativity which are often cultural. • The challenge is how to train future workers who would understand spirituality in its real sense and be able to promote, preserve and propagate it in an environment where imperialism has made parents to become ignorant of the cultural and educational values of indigenous language and knowledge.

Best practices on the kind of education that can raise productivity reveal that quality of thinking and learning [positive change in behaviour] are key factors

Working smartly requires smart learning [acquisition of adaptive skills] using smart technology, smart teachers, smart time, smart textbooks and smart tasks • The digital revolution and globalization have brought a new business culture in which people talk about doing business in an unusual manner, doing business as business, and making sure that people are down to business. • People talk about working smartly instead of working hard. The “SMART theory” becomes the order of business such that the “hurry-up culture” or the “speed and ‘accuracy’ culture” appears to be replacing the “slow and steady culture”. • Today, we talk about smart classroom, smart board, smart objectives, smart library, instant messages, instance response, instant tea, chalk-less classrooms, smokeless engines, topless dresses, headless things, noiseless cars, fatless food, costless products, backless dresses, wireless phones, etc. • All these have their economic advantages but they could also lead to having less quality time with teaching, learning and learners. Unfortunately, these teachers grow and are groomed under this culture of “speed”. Moreover, the learners of today usually turn to the “smart teachers” on the Internet for information and guidance. The issue is how teachers should be prepared to value speed and accuracy in environment where parents and the society do not have quality time to attend to the education and training of their children. Moreover, how do we train a teacher to pay attention to unmotivated learners who do not have time for learning through the face-to-face approach but are constantly in contact with their “Web teachers”? Furthermore, how do we train teachers to customize teaching and learning to fit an environment of speed where everybody is rushing up?

Working Smartly requires thinking smartly and strategically • Somebody described the core curriculum of the National University of Singapore as capable of producing “graduates, who are lateral thinkers ...” [IBRD/World Bank, 2000:90]. • Lateral thinkers are capable of taking a concept out of its original context and applying it on all sides and in different contexts. • They are skilful in all wisdom and understanding of all concepts. • Experience has shown that most of the Nigerian university students have problems with application and adaption of knowledge • Although, comprehension is one of the language skills being emphasized in Nigerian secondary schools, most of these students only listen to their teachers or read books, download relevant information, memorise with shallow comprehension and recall verbatim during examinations. • Consequently, most of our graduates are more of literal or verbatim thinkers than lateral, imaginative or creative thinkers. In fact, it is like Nigerian universities are graduating tankers instead of thinkers. • When these graduates encounter life problems requiring the creative use of the knowledge they have acquired, many of them fail because they are not skilful in art of digesting, transforming and transferring knowledge. • Many of these graduates cannot interpret real life situations in the light of the knowledge they have acquired. • Once they are challenged with problems outside their comfort zones, they are lost and become as if they have never attended a university. • These characteristics are certainly against the spirit of knowledge revolution.

END NOTE: there is need to strategically address the current over-education at the university level in Nigeria. It is a threat to labour productivity and the earnings of skilled workers

Effects of over-education is that wage will no longer reflect the marginal productivity of labour. Thus lowering efficiency of the individuals and that of the firms. There is need to rebrand polytechnic education to make it attractive

End Note: There is need to incorporate environmental education to the curriculum at the tertiary level of education in Nigeria • The resource-curse theory in which people think that the existence of petroleum has brought a curse rather than a blessing to Nigeria has made the issue of environmental management a topical discuss in Nigeria. • Since the Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education held in 1977, there has been a consensus among educators that environmental education should form part of workers’ education and consider the environment in its totality (economic, political, technological, cultural-historical, moral, and aesthetic). • The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 in the United States represents an effort to encourage postsecondary students to pursue careers related to managing the environment. Furthermore, Huey-li [2006] argued that because rational management of environmental resources can no longer be confined within national or regional boundaries in the age of globalization, planetary management has emerged as a popular agenda of the contemporary environmental movement. The question is how do we train the teacher beyond the traditional knowledge of nature study to become informed and proficient on rational management of environmental resources for the purpose of sustainable productivity among workers?

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EDUCATION THAT CAN RAISE PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA