ROLE OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN MITIGATING SECURITY ISSUES IN NIGERIA
Abstract
Nigeria is currently plagued with a lot of issues which threatens national security and stability. This study exposes the importance of TVE with its contribution to the development of skills as well as fundamental science knowledge especially to the youth. The study determined the role of technical and vocational education in tertiary institutions for mitigating security issues in Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and two
hypotheses were tested. The study adopted the descriptive research design. The population of the study consisted of all one hundred and fifty six (156) Technical and Vocational Education lecturers in tertiary institutions in Anambra State.The instrument for data collection is a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The instrument was validated by three experts in education. The reliability of the instrument was determined through a pilot testing on 20 TVE lecturers in Delta State. The application of the Cronbach Alpha reliability method on the data collected yielded co-efficient values 0.81 and 0.79 for clusters A and B
respectively with a general reliability co-efficient of 0.80. Data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Findings revealed that TVE can mitigate security issues in Nigeria because it helps students with technical skills, educates students with attitude needed for successful vocational and technical career formation, leads to the training of quality technical and vocational education teachers among others. Findings further revealed that reviewing the TVE curriculum for the promotion of creative and practical skills, integrating of technology in the TVE programme, making funds available for the operation of TVE programmes, improving training capacity of instructors and TVE teachers through in-service training programmes among others are strategies for providing viable technical and vocational education in tertiary institutions for mitigating security issues in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the researcher recommends among others that government and administrators of technical and vocational education programme should engage in active awareness campaigns on the need to promote vocational and technical skills development in the country.