The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa has proposed a series of innovative solutions to revamp the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
Alausa, during a crucial meeting with the Director-General, NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Olakunle Nafiu, in Abuja on Friday, proposed extending the duration of youth service from one to two years to provide more job opportunities.
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Alausa emphasised the need to think outside the box and leverage the NYSC to provide more opportunities for Nigeria’s youthful population.
“We have a huge population. We have a unique demography in the world of about 220 million people.
“And guess what? 70 per cent of those people are below the age of 30 years. So we have the most youthful population in the world.
“One thing we have to now do is to innovate. Be creative. Think outside the box. And this is something I’m talking to you about. Two-year youth service will give people jobs,” he said.
Alausa also proposed creating teacher’s corps where graduates would be deployed to rural areas for two-years, teaching critical and important subjects.
Additionally, he said there was need to incorporate skills training into the NYSC scheme to equip corps members with entrepreneurial skills.
“Expand the breadth of opportunity. Give people more opportunity. Let’s use NYSC to give people more opportunity.
“Train them better. Give them skill sets that after finishing, they can do things on their own. They don’t need to be job seekers.
“They can be entrepreneurs and also, people out there that are just languishing on the street, how can we use them better to meet the needs of our country?.
The minister added that NYSC should also think about exploring the possibility of deploying nurses and doctors to rural areas for two-year contracts.
According to him, these proposals aim to address the country’s pressing issues, including teacher scarcity, youth unemployment, and inadequate healthcare services in rural areas.
He explained that with the support of President Bola Tinubu, who is committed to innovation and human capital development, these initiatives have the potential to bring about transformative change in Nigeria.
On his part, the NYSC DG, Brig.-Gen. Olakunle Nafiu, said the recent policy allowing for the mobilisation of full-time HND was a right policy.
Nafiu said the proposal by the Minister were good but would require critical debate by stakeholders.
” Our mobilisation is constitutionally driven. So for us to proceed in that, we are going to go where we need and look at the possibility of the proposals.
” We’ll be happy to engage with other stakeholders, probably as led by the Ministry, to discuss this further.
“We have an act that constrains us from mobilising such categories of people. But if the act is amended and NYSC is funded, why not?
“We would gladly take on that additional responsibility for the greater good of the Nigerian society,” he said.
Speaking furtther, he said Nigerian students studying in Ukraine but brought back to continue their studies in Nigeria were posing issues to the scheme.
He said for those who decided to continue their studies online won’t be mobilised as NYSC does not mobilise graduates with online courses.
“Some of the other lingering issues that we’ve been encountering, and I believe is agitating the Ministry, has to do with the issue of the Nigerian students that started their degree programmes in Ukraine before the Russia-Ukraine War of 2022.
” When the war broke out in February 2022, some of these students started as full-time students in those countries, particularly Ukraine.
” I know there was a policy that some of them that wanted to come back can come and continue their courses in higher institutions in Nigeria.
“But some, for one reason or the other, opted to continue their programme online. Of course, NYSC does not mobilise part-time graduates.
“So these are some of the issues that are beginning to come up and we believe we will start receiving letters of appeal in respect to that,” he said.
He urged the ministry of education to come up with the database of Nigerians leaving the country for education.
He said this would enable them fish out those that travelled within a year and came back with a degree.
Speaking on proposed extension of service year to two years, Nafiu said the proposal was subject to resources and Federla Government’s approval.
