The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has advocated the overhaul of academic curriculum of tertiary institutions in the country to fit current advancements in technology.
The Director-General of NASRDA, Dr Matthew Adepoju, made the call on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Adepoju said this had become imperative in view of the huge gap between graduates of tertiary institutions and industry requirements which had left lots of them unemployed.
According to him, the curriculum we have been running for more than 30, 60, 70 years needs a total overhaul because technology has changed.
”The rule of the game has changed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics. There is no department that can run core traditional programmes anymore.
”The internship and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programmes are windows for us to see what the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are turning out.
”We believe that we need a total overhaul of our academic curriculum to fit with the current advancement in technology.
”Now we are in the age of industry 4.0 and we need to position our youths, our next hand to be able to compete both locally and globally,’’ NASRDA boss said.
According to him, Nigeria is a country that has very boisterous, intelligent, competent, sound and capable youths who need to be positioned well.
”We need to infuse technology into every course curriculum and this is how we can play with the developed world.
”We need to look inward and ensure that the robustness of educational system in China, Malaysia, Europe and the US is the same here,’’ he said.
Adepoju added that NASRDA would engage the relevant stakeholders like the Nigerian Universities Commission to device ways on how to mainstream space, science and technology into the academic curriculum.
According to him, new courses need to come on board and old courses should add new components to accomplish the purpose. (NAN)
By Ijeoma Olorunfemi
