ACQUISITION OF SKILLS IN SCIENCE, TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION(STVE) FOR A KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY IN NIGERIA: STATUS, CONSTRAINTS AND THE WAY FORWARD

One of the primary goals of Science, Technical and Vocational Education (STVE), is the acquisition of a range of cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills and processes to result to direct involvement in techno-scientific activities, procedures or applications in the laboratory, workshop or the field for the welfare of humanity. Towards attaining this goal, the Federal Government of Nigeria, adopted a system of education that is skill-based. Within the Basic Education structure, the curriculum has ample provision for Basic Science and Technology (BST), Information Technology, and Prevocational Studies. The Post-Basic Education level, provide ample experiences in entrepreneurial, technical and vocational job-specific skills for self-reliance and socio-economic development. The Tertiary Education level, provides high quality career counseling and life-long learning programmes that prepares students for the knowledge-based economy, skills for self-reliance and the world of work. However, at various times and at different levels of the education system, policy pronouncements and implementation appears to sing discordant tunes, as a number of dysfunctional elements present some incongruent tunes in-between. This paper thus, discussed the status of STVE in Nigeria, pointing out obvious constraints and the way forward. This is with a view to making prospective school leavers and graduates acquire saleable skills and competitive favourably with their counterparts in the global community.