The federal government has reiterated that the world has moved beyond days of white-collar jobs as it urged parents and guardians to encourage their children and wards to embrace technical education.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo said this yesterday, after monitoring the ongoing National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB), in Abuja, in which 154,301candidates enrolled for year 2023.
Adejo, who expressed satisfaction with the general conduct of the examination which began last week, across the country, said some registered students in some states were not allowed to write as the state government which registered them failed to release money for the examination.
He regretted that some state governments were owing the examination body so much that a decision had to be taken to recoup the sum.
Adejo, however refused to mention the states involved and the amount being owed the examination body.
Noting that there was improvement in the 2023 examination, he said: “But I keep telling people that as Nigerians, we need to really embrace technical education. We really need to let our children know that the world has moved beyond the days of white-collar jobs. What you get today is what you can do with your hands. And at the pre-tertiary education level, the NABTEB provides that opportunity for training you to be business minded and technologically focused. That is the examination that assesses you to get to that place.
“Now, when you look at what is happening in our university system and our tertiary institutions, they are also diverting to doing innovation and entrepreneurship, that is what makes the difference.
“A number of states were not allowed to write this examination because the states did not pay, and NABTEB has to take that decision because previously, they have been allowing them but the debt is growing. These examination papers were made with money, the monitoring is money, the marking is money and the release of results is money.”
Speaking also, the Registrar of the Board, Prof. Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe, explained that registered candidates in some states were not allowed to write the examination because their state governors who registered them did not fulfill their payments.
She explained that, “Some states are owing us and this time, we refused credit so that action reduced the number of candidates writing the examination down. Nevertheless, what we have this year is 154,301. That is the exact number of candidates that enrolled this year.
“As you can see, this is a far cry and that’s to show you that we need to do more, we need to encourage technical education the more. We need more candidates because that is where you get the skills.”
Explaining that the examination started last week across the country, she said: “So, we are one week now into the examination. This week is for our compulsory, general education subjects. As you can see, today is for English Language and tomorrow will be Mathematics followed by Economics on Thursday.”
