Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Nigeria: A Genealogical Inquiry into the Inferior Positioning of TVET

Abstract

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has a role to play in addressing unemployment and poverty; however, for too long, this sub-sector has been overlooked. Educators and policy makers in Nigeria often view TVET as a sub-sector for those who were incapable of pursuing academic programs; thus, resulting in TVET being viewed as low status by students and the public. In contrast, education and training in the old African society were very functional and met the needs of the society. A review of literature on traditional African education reveals that education in the old African society was vocational in nature. With Nigeria being a former British colony, and the country’s education system being one of the lasting legacies of the colonial administration, researchers have observed that Nigeria’s adoption of the British elitist education system set the country’s educational trajectory on a different path; one in which TVET is perceived poorly. This study examined the continuing influence of colonialism on Nigeria’s system of education. The study is a genealogical analysis of the TVET system in Nigeria. The conceptual framework for this study combined Human Capital Theory, Social Theory, and Postcolonial Theory with Foucauldian genealogy to explore the inferior positioning of TVET in Nigeria. Particularly, I explored the historical and discursive construction of TVET in Nigeria, as well as some of the reasons TVET in Nigeria has made slow progress from the time it was formalized to date. I examined specific historical documents on the development of education in Nigeria to identify those discontinuities that have occurred in the emergence of TVET in Nigeria; thus, creating its current reality. I examined how TVET is positioned within policy documents and note that the emphasis on intellectual training and pursuits, according to the colonial ii order at the expense of TVET, positions university education as the only route to building a successful career, thus, resulting in the poor image of TVET as inferior to university education. The study revealed that education policy and practice in Nigeria is dominated primarily by the politics of educational productivity. The most popular policy discussions interpret education as a kind of durable good that is expected to produce graduates who would function well in the labour market. This instrumental value of education in the labour market is based on human capital investment and draws on human capital theory. In addition to the accumulation of human capital, the study revealed education policy and practice appear to focus on the production and reproduction of social class structures, although the ‘Third Space’ debate in postcolonial theory might encourage the emergence of human agency due to the possibility of resistance and transformation in education policy and practice. The implications of the study for policy, practice, theory and further research, as well as the recommendations arising from it, are discussed.