BEYOND THE FORMAL CURRICULUM: VOCATIONAL/TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMMES FOR FAMILY SUSTAINABILITY IN NIGERIA

ALADE, Ibiwumi Abiodun Ph.D

Abstract

The roles of functional education through a well designed and implemented curriculum for the economic survival of the populace remains a reference point in policy matters of any country. Notwithstanding, the formal curriculum implemented in schools is often found by many education scholars to be limited in meeting the challenges of Nigerian economy. Since the formal curriculum up till the present era cannot do it all alone, central in the efforts on strategies that will complement it and take care of its weaknesses in practice along with the economic needs of the entire populace is the focus of this paper- "Beyond the Formal Curriculum; Vocational/Technical and Economic Empowerment Programmes (VTEEPs) for Family Sustainability in Nigeria. It begins by examining economic comatose and graduate employability for economic revival along with the place of VTEEPs in family empowerment in Nigeria. Upon the appraisal of the success and failure of formal curriculum, emphasis is placed on vocational/technical and entrepreneurship initiatives between 1946 and 2012 as well as poverty alleviation programmes between 1972 and 2012 as means for family empowerment and sustenance. The paper further identified some other routes to sustainability in Nigeria and sums it up that while most of the relevant vocational/technical economic empowerment programmes which have been implemented in Nigeria should not be allowed to go into extinction, they should be re-envisioned towards sustainability giving attention to the masses.