Varsities should engage industries for effective curriculum review – OAU don

The Head, Department of Management and Accounting, Faculty of Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Prof Grace Akinola, tells DANIEL AYANTOYE reasons why the Business School of the Institution is delayed amongst other issues.

You said recently that some issues faced by students in tertiary institutions started at the nursery and primary school levels, could you expatiate on that?

If the foundation of a building is not properly laid, no matter how elegant the building looks, it will not stand. At the foundational level, pupils are not taught to be critical thinkers and this is difficult to do at a later stage of children’s educational development. I will strongly advise that the syllabi at the nursery and primary school levels be restructured to train pupils to be critical thinkers and not just to memorise to pass exams. A Grade II Certificate used to be the minimum qualification for teachers in nursery and primary schools before it was changed to the Nigeria Certificate in Education, popularly known as NCE. However, the methods of teaching in the nursery and primary schools in the then Grade II syllabus have not been incorporated into the NCE syllabus. Meanwhile, the NCE syllabus was designed for teachers of secondary schools.

What are some of the issues you have identified with regard to the training of students?

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They are numerous, with categories of people and institutions being responsible. The home, the society and the government are the major culprits. Some students are pursuing their current programmes or courses, not because they are passionate or interested in them, but because parents forced them to make the choice. This will definitely affect their level of focus and commitment, leading to distraction, lateness for lectures, poor attendance and other things needed to do well in the course. Also, the norms and societal values that were important have been replaced with the love of money and wealth, which has led to some students of higher institutions seeing educational attainments as a waste of time. Hence, they are looking for all manners of ways to get rich quickly. Definitely, this will affect their commitment to their programmes, and this manifests through their attendance at lectures, submission of assignments, etc. Don’t forget that their low level of commitment started in their secondary school days when male students would leave their schools to ride commercial motorcycles and female students would go to stores after school without creating time to do assignments or read their books. Many of these students engage in all these activities because parents have shifted their responsibilities onto them, and the students are now virtually breadwinners in their various homes. The government aspect is crucial, the first being funding. The institutions should be properly funded and appropriately equipped.

There are some graduates who seem not to have the strength to face work challenges and they are quick to quit, some call them GenZ’s, how can this be addressed?

This category of workers likes to maintain a healthy balance between their work and personal life. Also, they like to shine individually despite their membership in a team. They are so sensitive about their environment and climate change. They love connecting with colleagues via video conferencing and phone calls, and they like having access to instant messaging applications. Due to the uniqueness of their characteristics, the workplace should take advantage of these peculiarities by creating an effective work-life balance and managers should communicate with them with a high sense of openness. Management of companies who have them in the workforce should promote independence and autonomy for them to enhance their level of productivity. The workplace should embrace and promote new technologies and train this category of workers on the use of these technologies to enhance employee performance in the place of work. Finally, empathise with them when they genuinely have private life challenges.

There is also the issue of graduates facing different scenarios at work compared to what they were taught in school, how can this be reconciled?

In most cases, students’ expectations on the job are different from what they experience when they resume work. This is the essence of industrial training via industrial attachment. This cannot totally be the case with graduates who were exposed to IT when they were students. Teachers in training also do teaching practice as part of their training. I will advise that IT should be introduced to the curriculum of all programmes so students can be exposed to equipment, packages or instruments in their areas of specialisation before they graduate. Government should create an environment to ensure industrial production and manufacturing thrive where students go for IT.

How do you think the education curriculum can be improved upon to address some of these challenges?

The rate at which things change in society or the world these days is so rapid, most especially as a result of technology. Universities should therefore interact with the industries each time they plan to review their curriculum.

Tell us about the programmes your department currently offers and how best the curriculum has been improved to meet the modern labour demand?

Currently, the Department is offering eleven programmes which include: BSc (Accounting), BSc (Business Administration), Postgraduate Diploma (Financial Management), Postgraduate Diploma (Management Studies), Master in Business Administration (Regular), Master in Business Administration (Executive), MSc (Accounting), MSc (Business Administration), M Phil (Business Administration), PhD (Accounting), PhD (Business Administration). The Postgraduate Diploma programmes are for those who obtained their first degrees in non-business oriented fields and do not have professional qualifications and are willing to obtain their professional degrees in business or finance-related disciplines. The M Phil degree is for those who did not make a PhD grade at the end of their MSc programmes for them to be able to proceed to earn PhD. The Executive MBA programme is to enable working-class people to earn their MBA degrees at their convenience. The university is at an advanced stage of establishing a business school to include a Doctor of Business Administration degree of the university. The curricula of these programmes are reviewed in line with the Obafemi Awolowo University regulations, which are the reasons why the performance of our graduates in their places of work within and outside the country speaks for itself.

How far has the institution gone with the Business School?

The process for the establishment of the business school and its curriculum has passed some stages. The university has earmarked a piece of land for the school, though we are still looking for sponsors to build the school. It will take off immediately the university senate approves the curriculum and the establishment of the school.

Partnership with other institutions is an initiative that could help your business school to gain speed, are you considering that?

There have been moves by some well-established business schools outside Nigeria to collaborate with the OAU Business School in terms of staff and students exchange and many other areas. The university is working on modalities to implement this.

Given the continuous advancement in technology, what are some of the aspects you think the education system would need to do more and what steps has OAU taken in this regard?

The Executive MBA programme has incorporated the use of technology in its lecture delivery platforms. This was partly dictated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, students can receive their lectures from anywhere in the world as if they are in a physical class with the introduction of these technologies. The university has a well-equipped virtual library where students can get high-quality textbooks within and outside the country. The government needs to increase the funding of universities in this regard because many of these technological equipment, textbooks and other online materials are very expensive.