Buhari wants graduates to shift focus to job creation, self-employment

President Muhammadu Buhari has canvassed for a paradigm shift towards preparing the minds of Nigerian graduates for job creation and self-employment.

The president made this call at the 12th convocation ceremony of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in Abuja on Saturday, March 26, 2023.

He also called for a need for Nigerian universities to develop new curriculum that will de-emphasise employment seeking and promote the objectives of self-employment and job creation.

Buhari's words: “It is government's determination to adjust the nation’s entire educational curriculum towards an emphasis on entrepreneur education and societal relevance.”

“It is gratifying to note that the National University Commission has almost completed work on comprehensive engineering of the curricular of all programmes in our universities. This should not only stimulate increased productivity but also reduce unemployment among our Youths.”

While re-stating his commitment to making education affordable to all through the Open and Distance Learning mode, the president maintained that education remains the foundation of all developments be it social economic, political or religious.

Buhari said: “It is through this mode that the National Policy on education makes provision for lifelong learning that transcend all areas. My administration will continue to support the operations of NOUN by giving priority to the provisions of critical human and material infrastructure through increased annual budgetary allocations and constant interventions from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).”

Pulse reports that NOUN graduated 28,740 students, comprising 21,339 undergraduates and 7,401 post-graduates, from all the institution’s study centres across the country.

Giving a further breakdown of the graduating students during his remark, the Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Professor Olufemi A. Peters, said 58 of the undergraduates and seven postgraduates are inmates, adding that six students will be awarded First Class, 2,306 for Second Class Upper, 11, 075 for Second Class Lower and 5,558 for Third Class.