ES Receives Nigerian Press Council, UNDP The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius A. Okojie, OON, on Monday, 12 August, 2013, received a delegation from the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which came to advocate for the domestication of the UNESCO curriculum to improve the teaching of Mass Communication and Journalism in the Nigerian University System (NUS). Welcoming the delegation, Professor Okojie gave an overview of the history of the Commission and the NUS, saying that NUC was responsible for developing minimum academic standards for programmes in the system. Professor Okojie informed the visitors that, with the increase in number of universities, the challenges of regulating the system had grown. He enumerated the challenges to include poor infrastructure, low quality of teaching staff as well as the proliferation of degree mills and unapproved programmes. He stated that the Commission also had to contend with poor quality of entrants into the universities and lamented the collapse of the boarding system which, according to him, accounted for a lot of the indiscipline observed among the students. Because a number of them were leaving home for the first time, for the university, they were ill-equipped to face the challenges of life away from home and most times, the host communities were unprepared to handle the students’ excesses. The Executive Secretary commended the private sector for its involvement in university education, saying that it had infused some of the discipline the sector was known for into the NUS. He informed the guests that, though the early universities in the United State of America and the United Kingdom were faith-based institutions, a lot of them had gone under by the late 1980s, as a result of inadequate funding. Presently, He said most of the universities in the US were privately owned, adding that there was a need for cost-sharing, if the system was to grow. People had to be willing to pay for good education. Leader of the delegation and Executive Secretary, NPC, Mr. Bayo Atoyebi, said the Council, in line with its duty of fostering the achievement and maintenance of high professional standards by the press, was exploring possibilities of domesticating the UNESCO Model Curricula for Mass Communication and Journalism Education. The curricula, he said, ensued from the Declaration of Principles of Journalism Education by the First World Journalism Congress, held in Singapore, in June, 2007, stressing that the Council hoped to glean relevant aspects of the curriculum that could be tailored to meet the needs of the nation’s economy. He expressed the NPC’s concerns on the inadequacy in curriculum content for Mass Communication/Journalism in Nigeria, as many graduates, on entry into the industry, were found not to possess adequate professional skills and consequently, had to be retrained. Mr. Atoyebi said NPC had also observed the limited emphasis on governance and democratic issues in the university system, adding that the curriculum could be expanded under specialised reporting, to prepare students for their role in democracy and monitoring governance for accountability. He also said there was a need to educate students on the use of new media, such as the social media. To achieve this, NPC had sought the support of NUC, as the body responsible for approving academic content in Nigerian universities, to organise and coordinate the process of domesticating the curriculum. He said the Council had also sought the backing of the Democratic Governance for Development Project (DGDP) of the UNDP, explaining that the initiative was for synergy with all stakeholders in Mass Communication education. Responding, Professor Okojie stated that, though the Commission encouraged academics to glean best practices, it was necessary to improve the system without disparaging the efforts of those already in it. He said every environment had its peculiarities which could make models suitable for it, unsuitable for others. He told the guests that a world-class university was one that met the needs of its immediate community as well as the nation and not necessarily one that was comparable to an Ivy League institution. The NUC Scribe said the NUS had been adversely affected by the ‘token student syndrome’, which he described as mediocrity, arising from students settling for programmes they had little or no interest in, because they could not meet the cut-off marks for their programmes of choice. He said it was important to train people who were genuinely interested in Journalism and advised the Council to go beyond enriching the curriculum to ensuring that the ethics of the profession were inculcated in students. This, he said, would go a long way to enhance the skills of Mass Communication students and in the long run, improve the quality of journalists in the field. Professor Okojie reminded the Council that, while Mass Communication was a programme, Journalism was a profession and added that not everyone who studied Mass Communication was meant to be a journalist. He encouraged the Council to explore other fields which graduates of the programme could fit into. He also advised that it was necessary for universities to ensure that, in addition to sponsorship for PhD, academics in the system were sponsored for both local and international seminars and conferences. This, he said, would help tackle localisation of ideas. Members of the NPC delegation included the Director, Research and Documentation, Mr. Nnamdi Njemanze; Assistant Directors, Mrs. Stella Jibrin and Mrs. Nnenne Antia; Chief Resource Officers, Mr. Victor Aladu and Lanre Mohammed. UNDP was represented by Mrs. Toyin Gabriel.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 22:19:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015