Former Cross River State Governor and PRP presidential candidate, Donald Duke, has called for major changes to Nigeria’s education system. He wants secondary schools to focus more on vocational and practical skills.
Speaking on the Naija Unfiltered Podcast, Duke said students should leave secondary school with practical skills that can help them earn a l!v!ng, whether or not they later attend university.
“For me, SS1 to SS3 should be purely skills acquisition,” he said. He suggested that students should be allowed to choose areas they are interested in, including “masonry, plumbing, whatever.”
Duke also proposed restricting Nigerians below the age of 18 from getting visas to study abroad, saying this could encourage wealthy Nigerians to invest more in quality schools in the country.
“I’ll ensure that no child… is given a visa for education except it’s from university level up,” he stated. According to him, children who leave Nigeria at a very young age may become disconnected from their culture and find it difficult to fully adapt to either society.
“When you start sending kids at the age of nine abroad, you’re deculturalizing,” Duke said. “They end up going there, they are neither citizens there, they’ll never be accepted there, and they can’t fit in here.”
He further said that keeping students in Nigeria until secondary school would help keep educational spending in the country, create jobs and strengthen the local education sector.
Duke also called for a globally relevant curriculum, saying areas such as “information technology, cybertronics, and all those things” should receive more attention.
