Development of human capital in
most developing countries of the world is a state policy matter pursued
vigorously in many countries. Indeed, in most modern nation-state’s
constitutions, including that of Nigeria, education, healthcare, and other
ingredients of human capital development are rights of the citizens which the
state is obliged to provide for them. However, some states show greater
commitment to this noble task than others. The most important aspects of
investment in human capital development are education/training and healthcare
delivery. According to Ovenseri-Ogbomo (2006),
education and training have
become the most important investments towards national growth and development.
Nonetheless, Nigeria, since her independence in 1960, has not shown sincere
commitment towards the education and training of her citizens.
According to Ojo (1986), up until
the 1960s, little attention was paid to nationally planned manpower development
in Nigeria, despite its importance in the overall national development. As a
result, the nation has been suffering from an acute shortage of well-trained
manpower. The Third National Development Plan clearly expressed this concern in
the following way:
Hence, the plan expressly
emphasized the urgent need to train an increasing number of skilled personnel
to ensure
smooth development of the
country. However, this plan was never executed to the later. To Ojo, the
pattern of manpower
development in Nigeria has failed
to achieve desirable levels of manpower mixes, not only in terms of categories,
but
also in terms of quality. Similar
views were expressed by Gbosi (2003) when he posited that Nigeria’s educational
structure depicts the dominance
of formal education and places less emphasis on vocational and other training
that would
impact skills in Nigeria.
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