Article

Technical education and its challenges in Nigeria in the 21^st Century

V. O. Uwaifo

Department of Vocational and Technical Education, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria. E-mail: vuwaifo@yahoo.com.

Accepted 12 October, 2009

   Introduction

Technical education deals with the training of technical personnel for the purposes of initiating, facilitating and implementing the technological development of a nation and also to create the basic awareness of technological literacy to our youths. In Nigeria, the training of technical personnel has witnessed formidable challenges ranging from poor funding to inadequate facilities both quantitatively and qualitatively, non-availability of adequate human capacity, brain drain and poor staff training and retention profiles. Others include weak university/industry partnership, defective curricula, traditional approach to teaching, poorly equipped laboratories, poorly monitoring standards for the training of prospective technologists and an inadequate ICT environment. This paper intends to critically examine why Nigeria has not attained the desired standard of technological literacy in the 21^st century and suggest ways of improving the teaching and learning of technical education programme with enhanced enthusiasm and vibrancy.

Key words:  Technical education challenges...