CONSTITUTING QUALITY EDUCATION FOR EFFECTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMME

Abstract

With an estimated population of 140 million, Nigeria accounts for nearly one quarter of the populations of sub-saharan Africa. Growing at an estimated 2.8% a year, certainly it is one of the fastest growing populations in the World with children below the ages of sixteen for 45%. Despite its oil revenue, it is estimated that 70% of the population are still living below poverty line largely due to lack of access to quality education (VSO, 2008). The Federal Ministry of Education in its 2006 presentation identified education as a transformative tool to develop, empower and progress the Nigerian nation. Yet the education system which is regarded as an instrument for the nation’s socio-economic development, industrial and technological advances and political as well as cultural growth, has over decades been in a state of severe crisis, stemming from an increase in disparity between the requirements vital to providing quality education and the available resources. According to the 2008 World Bank Report on Education sector ?Due to high increase in number and size, our education sector has now become large and complex, demanding for continuing strategic planning and efficient management?. These challenges have prompted growing concern over the efficiency and effectiveness with which the nation’s educational system is handled. In order to have a quality education that holds a strong bearing and insistence on economic empowerment of the Nigerian citizens, there is need to explore and examine the best options and best practices for guidance. Therefore, the primal intent of this presentation condenses around five major components viz: Brief Historical background of education in Nigeria; Theories of Quality Education; Toward constituting a Quality Education; Effective Entrepreneurship Education Programme; Entrepreneurship Education in the NPE, MS and Roadmap, Critique; Framing Challenges and Mapping Solutions.