The governor, while advocating for a rapid shift to experiential learning, expressed his disappointment that none of Nigeria’s universities rank among the world’s best and are unable to “produce inventive graduates who can drive national development.”
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he Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Ndubusi Mbah, on Tuesday, delivered the 1st Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Distinguished Personalities Lecture Series. Building on the theme ‘Experiential Learning: Building the Wealth of the Nation,’ the governor observed the timeliness of the lecture to address the faulty model of education and learning in the country. A situation which he said “hindered our progress by failing to equip students with the skills and competencies required for industrialisation and economic transformation.”
The governor, while advocating for a rapid shift to experiential learning, expressed his disappointment that none of Nigeria’s universities rank among the world’s best and are unable to “produce inventive graduates who can drive national development.”
In the Enugu State education, he stated his ambition to transition it to education for a living by allocating 33% of the state’s budget to the sector, “twice UNESCO’s recommended benchmark. This investment has facilitated the creation of 260 Smart Green Schools across our wards.”
The Enugu State Smart Green Schools target children from age three, instilling in them social habits, health habits, fine motor skills, and problem-solving competencies and introducing them to an experiential education system that helps them to navigate our rapidly evolving technological knowledge-driven world.
“After three years of Early Childhood Education, having completed Nursery 1-3, our children complete Basic 1-9. During their twelve-year academic study in the Enugu Smart Green Schools, our children learn with interactive digital whiteboards, tablets, and computers; they are immersed in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual/Augmented Reality, and the Internet of Things, among others,” he said.
The Smart Green Schools graduates would proceed to “the eight Science, Technical, and Vocational (STV), which will focus on key competencies like Industrial and Information Technology, Building and Fabrication Engineering, as well as Industrial Agriculture,” to become respected and skilled professionals.
Mbah also called on the state-owned tertiary institutions “to adopt experiential learning models in their planning, curriculum, and research efforts. Noting that “education is not just about passing exams,” but being prepared to take on the challenges of “a rapidly evolving, technology-driven world.”
