Abstract
Business
education is a program of study and an aspect of vocational education program offered in both
secondary and tertiary institutions of learning in Nigeria. This program is
designed to equip the recipients with both academic and vocational skills
needed for both salaried and self employment as entrepreneurs. Unfortunately and ignorantly too, this course
is being looked down on by students, parents and society in general, just like
every other vocational education program. Students neglect Business education programme
and are disenchanted about opting for it, especially at the tertiary
institution level. Equally, parents believe that Business education is a course
for dullards or for someone else’s child. They seldom encourage their children
or wards to study it. The main aim of this piece of work is to highlight the
meaning and objectives of Business education program and its importance to its
recipients. It also X-rays how Business
education equips students for employment. It recommends among other things for
a change of the general public’s attitude towards the course since it has
capacity to reverse the unemployment challenge of Nigeria. It was concluded
that parents should encourage their children and wards to study Business
education if they are interested in it, because it will enable them to be job
creators rather than job seekers.
Key words: Business education and unemployment.
Chapter One
Introduction
Business
education is important for everybody. The present economic condition coupled
with the high rate of unemployment in the country has greatly justified the
existence of Business education in the curriculum of secondary and tertiary
institutions in Nigeria. Before now,
there has been increasing emphasis on discipline areas like Mathematics,
English, and Science as the only important subjects in the curriculum, while
there was corresponding de-emphasis on subjects like Business education and
other vocational courses which were thought to be ‘frills’ Robert (1983 )
in Odike,( 2015).
The
attitude of society and parents towards Business education discourages students
who would like to study the course in higher institutions from doing so ( Ayub
2016). He noted that most parents still
choose the academic stream rather than technical and vocational training.
Parents see Business education as a
coursefor someone else’s child while they nudge
their own children towards other supposedly lucrative areas such as Medicine,
Engineering, Nursing, law and so on.
Okocha (2010) in his own study discovered that in spite of the fact that parents recognize
the employment value inherent in vocational education (which Business education
is an aspect of) they still prepared to
accept the superiority of socially prestigious and white color professionals
over technical related occupations.
Okoye (2005) in his own study also found out
that some parents do not desire their children and wards to study Business
education because they believe that it is
meant for drop-outs or dullards. They rather prefer their children
studying such courses like medicine, Law, Engineering, and so on. Most parents therefore employ all manner of
inducements to motivate their children to study sciences, which will qualify
them to read the prestige courses in the university, without considering the
children’s interest and abilities. It is only the students who cannot excel in these courses that
grudgingly turn to any other course, including Business education. Government also discourages the students from
being interested in any other subjects other than Sciences, English and
Mathematics. Emphasis has always been on science and technology. For instance,
during the employment of teachers in 1999/2000, in Enugu State only teachers
that read science subjects, including English and Mathematics were recruited.
The graduates in other disciplines including Business education were rejected.
This societal attitude towards Business education discourages most students
from studying Business education and this leads to paucity of professional Business
education teachers in the schools. As a result of this, many unqualified
teachers are employed to teach business subjects such as Commerce, Office
practice, Shorthand and typing (word processing) in the secondary schools. Off
course, such teachers will only teach the aspect of business study they can
teach leaving of the practical aspect of business study such as shorthand and
typing( word processing). Ndinechi,
Obayi and Igboke (2009) in Odike (2015) noted that in many instances untrained
teachers are employed to teach business studies in the secondary schools, such
teachers do not posses N.C.E. or first degree in Business education. They might
have studied business courses in the higher institutions but lack pedagogy of
teaching.
Ironically,
most of the students who studied those preferred courses end up engaging in
business enterprises after graduating from school or university, unprepared and
ill-equipped. It is against this background that this paper is written to
highlight the importance of Business education programme in equipping the recipients with both
academic and technical skill needed for both salaried and self employment.
Objective of the
study.
The
main aim of this piece of work is to highlight the meaning, objectives and
importance of Business education
program and the extent it can equip its recipients for employment.