Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education as catalysts for technological transformation: focus on Agricultural Education and training.

Niger Delta Journal of Education Vol (10). 2. (2018)

Abstract

Functional education is the greatest investment to emancipate all from poverty. Colonial education concentrated mainly on cognitive domain of learning involving the 4Rs of Reading, writing, arithmetic and Religion and little focus on affective and total neglect of the psychomotor domain. It was the type of education that produced clerks, office workers, adnzinistrative officers and teachers. The education for growth in diverse fields of technology, agriculture, medicine etc were not given due recognition at all. Vocational education emphasizes the doing aspect of curricula by making the school programmes practically oriented. Africans depended heavily on agriculture for foreign earnings before the era of oil boom and solid minerals. The diverse cultures of Africans are tied to agriculture and this has now been adulterated with loss of interest of the youths. Modern youths prefer to throng-cities forriorx existing jobs rather than engage in professions they call dirty and not remunerable enough. To them, agriculture is tedious and energy sapping. Youths will develop interest in the subject by teaching it, learning it, practicing it, and, appreciating the benefits. This paper addresses vocational, agricultural and entrepreneurship education, training programmes in agriculture, technological transformation strategies as ways in iltoving countries, including Nigeria forward etc.