The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) says reforms in the education and health sectors, accompanied by strategic investments, are necessary to improve quality of life and obtain better educational outcome in the country.
NESG stated this in its 2018 Macroeconomic Outlook titled “Will Nigeria’s growth be inclusive in 2018 and beyond?”
The outlook, obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday, indicated that development of human capabilities, access to quality education and healthcare were basic rights of citizens.
NESG advised that government policies should be tailored to significantly support both sectors to improve standard of living in the country.
“The relevance of education remains unclear, it is apparent that the educational system is raising graduates that find it difficult to fit into the workplace, even as innovation and entrepreneurship learning are not picking up as expected.
“Healthcare in Nigeria is in a dire state; this is evident in the high infant and under-five mortality rate.
According to NESG, growth in Nigeria’s population, which is expected to reach 399 million by 2050, will increase the demand for jobs and social services.
It indicated that there was an urgent need to up-scale job creation to salvage current unemployment and underemployment situation.
The group revealed that the social sector could help in filling the job gap through skills development to boost productivity and reduce number of unemployed citizens.
It indicated that government spending and urgent reforms must support the development of the social sectors to improve literacy rates; learning outcomes; access to quality health education and gender equality.
“ Interestingly, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) recognises the importance of developing these sectors and outlines several reforms to be implemented by the government.“
NESG also recommended the provision of socio-economic data to measure progress recorded in the country.
The government should provide frequent and timely data on poverty, learning outcomes, out-of-school, mortality rates, unemployment rates to track Nigeria’s performance on improving quality of life.
NESG also suggested the enactment of a national skills development policy and programme to address skills and capability challenges across all sectors in Nigeria.
“In the light of this, we propose that the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) needs to be reviewed and implemented to encourage synergies between the private sector and the fresh graduates.
“Nigeria needs holistic structural reforms for the education sector; the purpose of education in Nigeria needs to be clearly defined, while issues of accountability and governance of the sector must be given utmost attention.
“Nigeria’s curriculum must be up-to-date with the rapidly changing skills-need of the country.
To achieve this, the Nigerian government must strengthen public-private approaches in the review of the curricula at different levels.
“The reviewed curricula must prioritise the development and application of knowledge across major sectors and must be in line with the future skills-need of industries.
“Entrepreneurial studies need to be included in the secondary school curricula and teachers must be adequately trained to impart relevant knowledge. “
On social safety nets programmes of government, NESG indicated that there was the need to improve service delivery of the programmes.
According to NESG, there is need for proper coordination between the Presidency and the relevant MDAs on designing and implementing social programmes.
“The programs must have clear developmental objectives and the Federal Government must strengthen the monitoring and evaluation aspects of these programmes.
“While these programmes are crucial in uplifting the vulnerable citizens and achieving social inclusion, social safety nets on their own, will not deliver lasting improvements in living standards.
“These programmes must be supported by industrialisation, investment in the social sectors such as education, health and institutional reforms.“ (NAN)
