By Abstract
The unemployment situation in Nigeria is a major driving force for extreme poverty, which leads to all sorts of social vices. This paper observed that the reason for this state of affairs is as a result of a dysfunctional educational system, a fall out from our past flawed colonial and immediate post-independence era. The paper sees the traditional education system as a functional education which promoted skill that makes the individuals self-reliant and productive. The traditional education was no doubt integrative, because it combined physical training with character building and manual activities. This paper examines the concept of education, so as to have a veritable background of bringing out the positive role of education in the society and the concept of poverty was looked at as a major theme of the study. This is because the paper aims at combating poverty through functional education which is believed could help to promote skill acquisition and wondered why the 6-3-3-4 system of education was abandoned in spite of its lofty ideals. This paper believes that through functional education, qualitative manpower would be increased which will create employment possibility and could enable individuals to live as responsible members of the society. The paper came to the conclusion with some recommendations for poverty reduction through functional means, such as; increase in the percentage of fund allocated to education, education in Nigeria laying emphasis on skill development, citizens cultivating the habit of entrepreneurial education, parents developing skills consciousness in their children, the revival of the 6-3-3-4 system of education which should be made more functional. Finally, the paper recommended government commitment to teachers’ welfare and supervision/monitoring of education programmes.
Read/download the full paper below