Prof. Ajayi: We need education that can create an entire generation of entrepreneurs

Prof. Isaac Rotimi Ajayi is the Vice-Chancellor, Wellspring University, Edo State. In this interview with MICHAEL EGBEJULE, he spoke on Nigeria’s university education system, it’s challenges and the future.

Do you think Nigeria’s education system has fared well in the 21st century amid developmental indices?
The 21st century is our modern and contemporary period that began on January 1, 2001, and which will end on December 31st 2100. It is a period of 100 years out of which 21 years have been spent with a balance of about 80 years in the future. The period has been characterised essentially by digital revolution/technology, world population and climate change.

Do you think the country measured up in terms of advancement in Digital Technology?
Technology, which began in 1980s and now mainstreamed, has become widely accepted by most of the world with the massive use of mobile phones, the Internet and related technologies.

Recent record shows that in 2021, the number of mobile phone users worldwide stood at 7.1 billion, with forecasts suggesting this is likely to rise to 7.27 billion by 2022. Global Internet users have climbed to 4.95 billion at the start of this year with Internet penetration now standing at 62.5 per cent of the world’s total population. Social networking has emerged as popular social communication medium. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube are all major examples of social websites gaining widespread popularity in the century.

What opportunities and challenges has new technology brought about, particularly to developing countries like ours?
The new technology, which has brought a lot of disruptions, is now massively being deployed for teaching, research and administration and necessitates urgent and adequate capacity building of academics and students. As a result of this technology, there may soon be creations that could match human beings in intellectual abilities, on the same earth space. This is arising from progress in artificial intelligence, alongside disruptions brought by digitalisation, automation, virtual augmented reality, and so on. They provide great opportunities and challenges, which can be inspiring or terrifying, but most importantly, depending on how you respond to these, they enable those who can dream to hold aces.

For instance, in transportation, Google Maps has replaced paper maps and AI has enabled the likes of Uber and Bolt to change the concept of taxis. In medicine, 95 per cent of heart surgeries in some countries are now done by robots and just recently, a Nigerian conducted a spine surgery using a robot. Robo-doctors can now interact with patients and diagnose illnesses. Al is mining data from watches and providing medical solutions. Smart sensors are enabling real-time monitoring of soil and weather to determine appropriate treatments that improve yield by over 50 per cent in agriculture; it is called precision agriculture and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently on YouTube described how Israel, using a drone, connected to databases and sensors in the field can target the exact volume of water and fertilizer needed by individual plants.

Robotic teachers are deployed to remote locations in China thus enabling the education of rural dwellers. Many of the world’s prestigious Universities are now becoming accessible to people across the world from villages and cities as Coursera now offers online courses and certificates from world top ranked Universities.

Collaboration between researchers across countries is becoming less constrained, as they can now be done virtually thus changing the concept of distances and avoiding the need for travel.

In trade and commerce, bitcoin and crypto-currency are displacing currencies like dollars in global trade. Payment systems are bypassing traditional banking systems, and fintech and blockchain are changing banking from what we know of them today by using big data. These examples demonstrate that digitalization is transforming the world and we can just conclude that it has become an amazing world we live in.

Do you see Nigerian universities doing enough to get global relevance?
In the July 2022 webometric ranking of Universities, there are about 30,000 universities in the world all seeking to justify their existence and in Nigeria alone there are about 225 at the last count. It is estimated that world population will reach 9.2 billion by mid-century.

Every University is seeking global relevance and creating a niche for itself as a centre of excellence. The very high demand for higher education has stimulated significant growth in both private and public provision and distinguished academics; world- class scholars are hot cakes and in high demand all over the world.

If globalisation is paramount in enhancing development, are we on the path of advancing in that direction?
Globalisation may prove to be one of the most fundamental challenges faced by the university in all its history. The new concept of the knowledge economy highlights the need to direct education of students to the development of skills and competencies for a global workplace. Education has to enable individuals to improvise, use information independently, become better team players, handle complexity, prepare them for a non-linear career course and perform tasks that they have not been originally trained for. The university is the key place for synthesis of educational and research activities.

Do you suggest a revamp or new paradigm in education system for the country?
The speed, magnitude, and complexity of the challenges confronting global society today pose serious challenges and demand major transformational changes in the way we prepare future generations for life in an increasingly unified, rapidly evolving global society.

Existing educational institutions struggle to keep up with these challenges. Our education must lay the foundation for such individuality in all. In our formal and informal learning spaces, we need to teach our youth to be courageous, to challenge, question, think critically, and dare to make mistakes.

Do you see any hope for a better future in our education system?
The future education must address and develop conceptual and practical solutions to challenging issues. There are no simplistic solutions to address any of these challenges. Stakeholders must work towards formulating a new paradigm of education that is transdisciplinary, person-centred, contextual, collaborative and value-based.

Do you see government pushing for improvement in education in terms of meeting demands of the 21st Century?
If education is to play a role in solving global problems, it must transcend disciplines and become collaborative and flexible. Creativity and innovative thinking are more valuable than rote learning of any depth. Curricula must be integrated around topics that reflect patterns, interactions and interdependencies of different fields. Liberal education in universities will help students develop creative thinking, communication skills, analysis and critical enquiry. The future world needs more and better-informed, educated and broadminded individuals capable of learning quickly and adapting continuously throughout their lifetimes. 

Education should provide the essential foundation for lifelong learning. Secondary education is not enough; a university education will be as essential in future as primary education became in the 20th century. One of the most effective strategies for ensuring higher job growth rates is to raise the mandatory minimum and average level of education in every country. The immediate result of raising the mandatory minimum age will be to generate millions of new jobs for teachers, construction of more schools and production of educational materials. It will also slow the entry of youth into the labour force. In the medium term, this will raise the qualitative capabilities of the workforce, spawn and attract businesses in search of qualified manpower.

How does business and entrepreneurship drive economic development in any society?
Business is the economic engine of all modern societies. The need of the hour is entrepreneurship; it is not the mega companies, which create new jobs, new products and national wealth. Instead of giving concessions and incentives to large corporations, a nation’s focus should be on rapidly developing startups and SMEs. The creation of a startup culture will encourage talented youth and experienced managers to opt for self-employment instead of the security of salaried jobs. 

Entrepreneurialism requires not just engineering, accounting or other technical expertise, it requires a set of attitudes and values—to aspire, venture, take risks, accept responsibilities, anticipate, envision and lead. An entrepreneur must have the psychological personality and a well-developed individuality. Entrepreneurial values, attitudes, skills and knowledge can be effectively developed even in universities. We need an education that can create an entire generation of entrepreneurs. That will be the solution to our problem of unemployment.

Do you subscribe to youths embracing skills acquisition for the future, particularly to curb unemployment?
The problem of unemployment co-exists with a massive shortage of employable skills. Globally, nearly half the employers cannot find the skills they need, and three quarters believe that skills shortage will be a serious concern in the future. By 2030, skills shortage is expected to reach over 85 million people worldwide and cost companies trillions of dollars in unrealized revenue and lost opportunities. 

Skill shortage is not confined to the high tech industries; it is also prevalent in basic manufacturing industries. It is seen in developed, as well as developing countries. Even countries like India with enormous manpower and training infrastructure suffer from this problem. Large companies with more than 250 employees have twice as much difficulty filling roles as smaller firms.

Automation is not taking away jobs as feared; it is redefining them. All these require that everyone, even those already employed, should unlearns and relearns how to work.

Technology has redefined education globally with the Virtual University concept, how well have we harnessed the power of technology in this regard?
One of the surest and most reliable resources for the implementation of SDG 4, which is Quality Education for all, is technology. Technology offers an unprecedented opportunity to revamp and vastly expand the reach of higher education globally by adopting new models for educational delivery. It can revolutionise education as much or more than Gutenberg’s printing press did in 1492. All forms of learning enabled by information and communication technology—multimedia, internet, digital content, online tutoring, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and virtual reality—can be combined with the best of traditional learning methods.

The resultant hybrid-learning model is an effective system that can convert the SDGs on Education into a reality. The education technology market is projected to grow at 11 per cent annually and reach $341 billion by 2025. The global education market is estimated at $6 trillion, and has enormous scope for digitisation. Mobile education is a natural step ahead given the great proliferation of cell phones. More than 40 per cent of the people worldwide have a smartphone. Penetration ranges from 82 per cent of the population owning a smartphone in the UAE to Bangladesh where the number is just over 5 per cent. However, these numbers are on the rise, more so among youth (Half the children in America have a cell phone of their own by the age of 7). Delivering educational content through the smartphone is a smart and effective way of harnessing the power of mobile technology and multimedia.

A virtual university can engage the highest quality instructors and educational materials to deliver high quality education at a fraction of the cost of current systems. Formulation of comprehensive national or international delivery systems for internet-based secondary and higher education can dramatically transform education worldwide. While the cost and expertise for producing high quality multimedia instructional materials may be prohibitive for small countries or private firms, a global consortium such as WAAS or the World University Consortium, backed by national governments, could elevate the quality of education globally to the highest levels now seen in the most advanced nations. All these make the use of technology in education no longer an option, but a requirement for entry into the global community and economy.

What major challenges do you see in our tertiary education system?
It is imperative for all Nigerian Universities to adjust curriculums to keep pace and be ready for the future. I am pleased that NUC is cognisant of this fact and it is currently reviewing the BMAS for all programmes and leaving room for each University to include some innovative courses peculiar to their environment and culture. It will, however, be necessary, in implementing the new BMAS, to address the changing pattern of how capacity is built and how knowledge. The traditional approach of memorisation and regurgitation, as the basis of acquiring knowledge, is becoming less valuable as such knowledge can now easily be recalled by the push of a button on digital devices like phones. Knowledge acquisition has been digitised and people can now easily “Ask Anything” of Google and get the answer.

There is an alarming statistics of job seekers in the country, how do we address the issue?
Importantly is that the future will see less traditional jobs, the current education system that is geared to producing job seekers will need to change so that children can graduate as creative entrepreneurs, with a business plan at hand. Universities have to evolve from “teaching knowledge” to “teaching how to learn and apply knowledge”. The value of education will not be the certificate or courses that students graduate in, but in their ability to think critically, select the right data, interrogate and extract new insight, make choices and take action to solve problems. If the capacities of our youths are built this way, Nigeria has the best opportunities ahead to navigate the impact of the global trend.

With the country placing emphasis on certificates, do you see employers providing opportunities for persons with skills?
The present reality is that many Nigerians with Masters degree are abandoning their degree certificates and getting certification in Project Management, Agile, Business Analysis and getting into tech jobs that pay well. Nobody cares about what they studied at the University. What employers are looking and asking for is your certification in technology related field and your experience in that field to get employment.

What are stakeholders like you doing to improve the quality of education in our country?
The quality of education in our universities certainly needs to become much better and globally competitive in teaching cutting edge research, innovation and international outlook. Our graduates will increasingly be competing with the peers across the world, and a situation where only a few Nigerian University is ranked in the world’s top 400 Universities is simply not where we should be. In some countries, our graduates are now required to undertake a 2-year conversion course before they can be admitted to Master’s programmes.

It will also be necessary for our Universities to strive for more collaboration among themselves and with private sector, not just in endowments and grants, but also in the real-time intersection between research and application to enable innovations in new frontiers. Such are seen in world-class universities like Yahoo’s $75m Energy centre at Stanford University.

How can youths/graduates attain their full potentials in developing country like Nigeria?
Nigeria needs future-fit, creative, self-confident, innovative, morally upright, God-fearing and globally competitive graduates and youths with leadership attributes and entrepreneurial skills and initiatives. Graduates who are critical thinkers and confident problem solvers, thoroughly equipped intellectually and spiritually not only to confront and tackle the challenges of our rapidly changing world, but to respond to the peculiar circumstances of our society.