1. My dear son, let’s discuss a little bit of policy this morning, let’s look at the educational system. Your generation is going to take over soon, and you’ll need to design policy. #NigeriaNotes

2. The high-level unemployment you’re seeing is an indication something is not quite right with our educational system. #NigeriaNotes

3. Of course, it will be wrong to ascribe all the factors to the educational system. The economy plays a huge role in employment creation, but the fact remains a good educational system creates jobs. #NigeriaNotes

4. Except for her needs, government should not be creating jobs. Every time government takes the easy way out on the issue of employment by simply absorbing people into the civil service a bloat is created. #NigeriaNotes

5. Too many hands will start chasing a few jobs. This generates bottlenecks, administrative blackmail, and corruption. #NigeriaNotes

6. The reason our educational system is backward is because it’s testing for memory not creativity. You cram and regurgitate, and you pass! The problem with that is, it’s only good for school. #NigeriaNotes

7. After school life is not going to give you a memory test. Life will not ask you, What is Physics? It’s a useless question. We need to integrate the real world into the classroom. #NigeriaNotes

8. I’m proposing we make our educational system demand driven if we want to solve the unemployment problem going forward. I’m looking at six streams of employment creation through education reform. My focus in this letter is higher education. #NigeriaNotes

9. The first stream is the corporate stream. It’s for those going into the corporate world. The corporate world should conceptualize the curriculum, not an inexperienced bureaucrat in Abuja. #NigeriaNotes

10. It’s how to make the educational system employment driven. There’ll be fit for purpose. Of course, it’s a bit of a radical idea but that’s what we need. #NigeriaNotes

11. The second stream should be the technology stream. Our colleges of technology should be colleges of technology – as in coding and programming institutions. They should be incubators for startups. Yaba must be integrated into the classroom. #NigeriaNotes

12. A venture capital system should be incorporated as well, accelerator programs created. Businesses should start in school. The students should be coding for real. They won’t need to look for jobs after. Fintech fits in here. #NigeriaNotes

13. The third stream should be the enterprise stream. These are the entrepreneurs. The training aim should be to turn them into employers of labor. #NigeriaNotes

14. If we can train 100,000 entrepreneurs who over a period of five to ten years can employ an average of 20 to 50 people, that’s 5million jobs! #NigeriaNotes

15. I’ve averaged out - some will scale much higher, employing much more people, while some will employ lower. And some businesses will fail. But we will have had the opportunity to create at least 5million jobs. #NigeriaNotes

16. The fourth stream is the culture stream. These are the entertainers, fashion designers, film makers, musicians, media creators, entertainers, chefs, etc. We hardly have culture curricula in our universities and that’s unfortunate. Your generation is strong in culture.

17. That just goes to show there’s no generational fit. We’re running a forced anachronistic system that is neither adaptive nor responsive to native generational competences. #NigeriaNotes

18. There should be training of support stream for this group too – the artiste managers, studio technicians, business managers, etc. It’s two streams in one. #NigeriaNotes

19. The fifth stream should be the social services stream – the doctors, nurses, teachers, firemen, etc. Society needs these people. The numbers should conform to population growth in our strategic planning. #NigeriaNotes

20. The sixth stream is the agric stream. Your generation has brought incredible innovation to bear in this area. The value chain includes finance, real estate, export, and services. That value chain is going to grow. It will include equipment leasing and other specialties.

21. Of course, there will be regional specialties. Each state or region will fashion out a needs-based educational program based on vision. #NigeriaNotes

22. If we want to solve the unemployment problem our higher educational system must become demand driven, bring the real world into the classroom, create employment early, and integrate with the corporate world. #NigeriaNotes

23. I’m saying let’s make the educational system adaptive, responsive and needs-based. And it should take cognizance of generational nativism, as well as create the future. #NigeriaNotes

24. We need creative thinking. Our situation is desperate. #NigeriaNotes

25. Your Dad, LA. #NigeriaNotes