osahogulu remodelling business education
TRANSCRIPT
Journal of Education in Developing Areas (JEDA) Vol. 19, No. 1.
REMODELLING BUSINESS EDUCATION FOR ENHANCED FUNCTIONALITY AND
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PROPULSION IN NIGERIA
Professor Dele Joshua OSAHOGULU
Professor of Education Management Information Systems/
Director, ICT Centre
Rivers State University of Education
Rumuolumeni, PMB 5047
Port Harcourt.
e-mail: [email protected]
Mobile: +234(0) 803 754, 0641
+234(0) 803 706 7515
ABSTRACT In this paper, a novel concept of business education is advanced. It is very strongly hoped that this deliberate redefinition of business education will render it far more functional as an object of human learning, and far more powerful as a driver of development at the hierarchic levels of the individual, the family, the community, the state and the nation in Nigeria. The core hypothetical message of the paper is that if every subject on the pre-tertiary educational curriculum or every course on the academic programme menus in higher education were taught with heavy emphasis on its business utility or entrepreneurial potentials, practically all of the ills of graduate unemployment will vanish in the Nigerian society. (Keywords: business, management, business teacher education, business administrative education, mathematical models).
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 1
Introduction
The Nigerian society is currently plagued with many perplexing societal ills. Graduate
unemployment, misemployment and underemployment constitute a most frustrating
adverse triplet for educated Nigerian youths who are mainly graduates of tertiary
educational institutions (universities, polytechnics, colleges and institutes). Some
authorities have explained graduate unemployment in Nigeria on account of the
generally unfavourable economic constraints or conditions under which most
business sector organisations have to operate today. Such conditions as the high cost
of quality raw materials, suitably educated and trained labour, reliable power supply,
appropriate productive technologies, marketing of products and services, government
labour/taxation policies (TCNTP, 2008) and social responsibility pressures have
indeed reduced the graduate absorptive capacity of many Nigerian organisations
(Meheux, 2000). Others have blamed graduate unemployment in Nigeria on the gross
mismatch between institutional educational programmes and the knowledge-and-
competency requirements of the available job openings in the contemporary world of
work (Good, 2004). Still others have expressed the fear that graduate unemployment
in Nigeria is one inevitable consequence of the nation’s neglect of really effective
educational planning, which implies the overproduction of graduates in a few
traditional disciplines or fields of learning, and the corresponding relative neglect or
underproduction of graduates in others, some of which are the very ones in high
demand today in modern organisations (Okorosaye-Orubite, 2008). Examples in the
over-emphasized category include English language, economics, political science,
sociology and business management/administration or their respective traditional
variants. Examples in the under-emphasized category include information technology
(IT), computer engineering, computer science, electronic engineering, conflict
resolution and public policy (Artenstein, 2008). A significant number of contributors
too have begun to blame graduate unemployment in Nigeria on the unavailability of
effective occupational/career guidance and counselling services to undergraduates as
one major educational programme support service rendered on a day-to-day basis,
and systematically sustained throughout the duration of every programme on offer.
Infact, the most recent explanatory view on the stubborn issue of graduate/youth
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 2
unemployment in Nigeria is that there is not enough collaboration between higher
educational institutions and the industrial subsector in institutional
research/educational programming (Oyinkari, 2006). However, the academic brilliance
of any of these attempts at explaining graduate/youth unemployment in Nigeria
notwithstanding, the problem cannot be wished away or explained away. If no effective
follow-up action is taken, then not only will it persist, but it will, in fact, expand and
deepen beyond all manageable proportions.
It may seem now that we have so far forgotten to mention the equally troubling
and apparently perpetual state of underdevelopment in Nigeria. Going by the staple
global indices of national development such as income per capita, literacy rate,
proportion of recipients of tertiary education, personal health status, life expectancy,
environmental health/beauty/friendliness, residential housing quality,
industrialization, public/business transparency/ethical standards, crime rate,
technological development, resource commitment to research and development (R &
D), currency strength, drinkable water supply, energy/power supply,
food/nutritional adequacy, healthcare service quality, etc Nigeria can be said even
today to be considerably below fellow African nations like South Africa and Morocco,
to leave out the mention of the far more developed nations like the USA, Canada, UK
and Germany (Aderinoye, 2002; Anatsui, 2008).
But one thing is certain: as the citizens of Nigeria, we all desire to see our nation
outgrowing these societal defects as soon as possible. Yet as remarked above, the mere
advancement of brilliant reasons for graduate/youth unemployment and general
underdevelopment in Nigeria without any concerted action against these undesirable
features of our society will do the nation no good whatsoever. Hence we must begin at
this point to generate workable ideas toward realising the change from the very high
risk status of graduate/youth unemployment (Manilla 2003) to the preferred status of
higher graduate output and graduate absorptive capacity of the Nigerian society in the
21st century AD.
Against the foregoing background, this paper sets out to advance novel
reconceptualisations of business, business education, business teacher education and
business management education, which inherently constitute a new and surer
foundation for realising significant enhancements in graduate/youth employment and
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 3
national development.
Theoretical/Conceptual Framework
It is universally recognised that the silent but sure phenomenon of human cultural
evolution (or revolution, considering the current superlative rate of progressive
technological change) is today taking the human race through what is now globally
called the information or computer age (Gupta, 2007; Omole, 2003; Osahogulu, 2007;
Turban, Maclean & Wetherbe, 2004; Nwankwo, 2003). Hence the really effective
solutions to any large scale societal problems such as those of graduate/youth
employment and the lingering status of underdevelopment have to be rooted in the
computer-facilitated application of informatics, the mathematical science of
information creation, processing and transmission (Hillier & Hillier, 2003). Therefore
at the macroeconomic level, the Munasinghe (1983) mathematical model of time-based
national aggregate computer service demand applies:
Ct= F (Pt, Yt, Zt), ………………………………. (1),
where in any given time period t, say 2012,
Ct = the aggregate demand for computer services;
Pt = unit price of computer services;
Yt = level of economic activity or national income;
Zt = vector of other relevant economic variables such as
national population, indices of reliability, computing speed,
processor component size, etc.
For example, the general features of the individual bivariate curves linking Ct with Pt,
Ct with Yt and Ct with Zt can be plotted for Nigeria using 2010 data to obtain the
typical effective values of the coefficients or indices respectively linking Ct to Pt, Yt and
Zt. Where the complete data set can be obtained, a specification of the multiple
regression curve can be sought at once in the form: Ct = Bo + B1 Pt + B2 Yt + B3 Zt
Similarly, the national economic policy efforts to be made at utilising the
functional relation between service/industrial productivity and labour employment
level can rely on the Cobb-Douglas national production functional model:
P (x, y) = KXa Yb ……………………………. (2)
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 4
where P is the aggregate production of a national economy or of a firm in the economy,
X is the number of units of labour employed in the productive process and Y is the
number of units of capital outlay committed to the production of the P units
(Munasinghe, 1989).
It is quite imaginable to utilise equations (1) and (2) above to raise Ct or the
period-specific computer service demand (i.e. the computerisation of sectoral
manufacturing and service operations) while at the same time, raising the strength (X)
of the effective sectoral labour force (say by employing additional labour) and by
raising the value of capital input level (Y). It is inferentially asserted therefore that:
(a) ICT resource development or acquisition and consumption together
constitute a sound proxy complex variable or parameter for gauging
national development (Pitke, 1989); and that
(b) national economic policies designed to drive up aggregate economic
productivity are logically bound to raise graduate/youth employment to
crisis-diffusing levels (Abolo, 1998).
From the inferences (a) and (b), it can be rationally judged that equations (1) and (2)
provide sufficient public/business policy guidance hints for attenuating the twin
dreaded societal pathological conditions of graduate/youth unemployment and the
apparently inevitable perpetuity of national underdevelopment in a developing country
like Nigeria.
National Examples
Several developing nations, including some in Africa have already done or are
currently utilising the principles of the conclusions drawn in (a)and (b) to
simultaneously drive up graduate/youth employment and national development.
Examples include Pakistan (MOE, Islamabad, 2006), Rwanda (Artenstein, 2008),
Indonesia (Surjadl & Luhukay, 1989) and South Africa (Business Eye, 7-13 April,
2008). India too has for over a decade remained famous as the home base of many
private sector companies to which software development tasks are outsourced by the
large and complex global organisatons of the western industrialised nations (Ball,
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 5
McCulloch, Jr, Frantz, Geringer & Minor, 2004).
The Subject Reconceptualisation Questions
The problem under consideration in this paper is presented in these three subject
reconceptualisation questions (SRQs), which help to clarify and define the hitherto
unresolved broad problem of how best to reconceptualise and thereby to remodel
business education for its significantly enhanced functionality and national
development propulsion.
SRQ1
What novel redefinition of business is the most likely to result in a functional view of
business education?
SRQ2
What corresponding redefinition of business education is then the most likely to
render it sufficiently functional to support productive graduate self-employment or
paid employment?
SRQ3
What normative mutually beneficial working relationship should exist between
business administrative education (BAE) and business teacher education (BTE) as
the two major broad divisions of business education?
For purposes of the discourse in this paper, the required definitions may be rendered
as follows:
(1) Business is that all-inclusively broad field of learning and work concerned
with the theoretically informed practical development and implementation
of systematic processes targeted at the feasible, planned, designed,
marketed, financed, accountable, engineering/technology-facilitated and
profitable production and/or sale of goods, services and ideas to satisfy
specific human needs.
(2) Business education is therefore the helping professional blend of
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 6
activities such as competent theoretical / practical teaching, responsive
theoretical / practical learning, supervised industrial work exposure,
supervised research and supervised evaluation episodes, which are all
carefully designed to foster certifiably functional human cognitive,
affective, psychomotive and psychoproductive growth and development in
the business domain.
(3) (a) Business administrative education (BAE) – is itself then simply that
brand of business education which appeals to
the business specialist who is optionally bound for a nonteaching
professional corporate administrative or managerial role.
(b) Business teacher education (BTE) is the brand of business education
which is suitably designed for the business specialist who is optionally
bound for a teaching professional role at a specific level of a particular
nation’s education system.
(c) Business management is the learnable and practicable professional
discipline of business administrative education which focuses on
developing the business administrative functions of informed
policy/strategy formulation, planning, organising, directing and
controlling for proficient and accountable corporate resource acquisition,
allocation and sound commitment to the production and continuous
refinement of high quality goods, services and ideas (Ibekwe, 1984).
The painstaking coinage of the definitions in 3 (a), 3 (b) and 3 (c) is
intended to suggest with all seriousness that suitably qualified business
teaching at any level of a nation’s education system strictly calls for the
prior acquisition of the business teacher education (BTE) variant of
business education. In other words, the PhD holder in business
management, accounting or any other business administrative discipline
is strictly not a duly qualified professional teacher of his subject.
University lecturers are today expected to undertake some postgraduate
(postdoctoral) level of complementary conversion programmes in
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 7
professional education. This is a welcome global trend in the preparation
of advanced course lecturers for individuals aiming at filling teaching
positions in tertiary education. Teaching staff or faculty professionalism is
especially strongly stressed today in teacher educational institutions
(Menon & Rama, 2006).
Postgraduation Employment Assurance Strategies
It is a truism to assert that over the foreseeable future at least, the low graduate
absorptive capacity of the Nigerian economy may not change much. Hence the
business education graduate may consider and adopt any of the following self-help
strategies if only to avert the boredom of the otherwise inevitable endless wait for
nonexistent suitably paid job openings:
(1) Voluntary and free teaching service in a needy public or private school.
(2) Running private preparation classes for public examination candidates like
those preparing for UTME, JSCE, SSCE, etc.
(3) Forming, duly registering and running a nongovernmental organisation
specialising in rendering paid consultancy services to Small-and-Medium
Enterprise (SME) owners.
(4) Securing some reasonable capital fund and then investing it in an affordable
trading business (Oyinkari, 2006).
(5) Seeking out and taking up a part-time job in a public or private establishment
(e.g. a business centre, a canteen, a bookshop, etc) while learning the
technicalities of the business in preparation for subsequent independent self-
engagement in the same business.
(6) Embarking on a phone boot business and of course with due support from the
TSPs (i.e. the telephone service providers e.g. Airtel, MTN, GLO, etc).
(7) Embarking on a well-managed news/information agency.
(8) Raising some capital fund and running a small full-range IT business centre
(Oyinkari, 2006).
(9) Where family financial support exists, embarking at once on a postgraduate
degree or diploma programme of a professional nature.
(10) Operating a car wash business.
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 8
(11) Operating an adult business education class for relatively illiterate contractors,
suppliers, traders and skilled workers.
(12) Opening a duly registered news/entertainment centre complete with radio,
television, video machine, assorted newsmagazines, novels, DVD, CDs, etc.
(13) Operating a duly registered public canteen equipped with comfortable furniture
and electronic entertainment/communications media.
(14) Operating a private business education library.
(15) Publishing a specialist oriented weekly newsmagazine or newspaper (e.g. for
publishing the best ten Sunday sermons of the churches in say, Port Harcourt).
(16) Running a freelance consultancy service on IT software legality and application
(Oluwafemi, 2008; Akinyele, 1995).
(17) Operating a market/marketing research or business research outfit (Cooper &
Schindler, 2003).
(18) Operating a testing service on general current affairs.
(19) Operating a testing service on the basic school subjects such as English,
mathematics, agricultural science, biology, health education, chemistry,
physics, further mathematics, business studies, economics, commerce,
government, statistics, computer science, IT or ICT, etc.
(20) Operating a GSM phone charging booth business which is powered by an
affordable electricity generator.
This list could continue but it is already long enough to reveal the
underlying principle in its generation: the three-part principle of readiness for
creativity, learning and industry that is, productive or result-oriented hard work
(Good, 2004). If for example, a business education graduate decides to operate an
exquisitely run internet café, (i.e. cybercafe’), then he or she first has to learn the
requisite computer science, technology application and computer programming with
all its mathematical foundations such as discrete mathematics (Rosen, 1999; Sarkar,
2006), operations research (Hillier & Lieberman, 2005) and finite mathematics
(Barnett, Ziegler & Byleen, 2000).
Conclusion
In this paper, the change-demanding situation regarding graduate/youth
unemployment and the seemingly perpetual state of underdevelopment in Nigeria have
been considered. It is the author’s firm conclusion that while government is the prime
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 9
agent of development which helps in fostering policies and strategies for national
development, business investments and effective business management/operations
are the prime actualisers of government desire for national prosperity and
development. It is, therefore, posited here that functional business education is at the
core of the short-term solution to the youth/graduate unemployment problem in
Nigeria. For example, in the core-global financial capitals of London, Paris, New York
and other cities in their class, it is the successful business corporations which by their
employment policies, trendy skyscrapers and company premises, determine the overall
exquisite beauty of their host urban environments. Hence it is concluded here that
education in business is the most effective way to develop modern society for man.
Hence the effective and efficient management/operations of business organisations is
correspondingly the most potent positive contributor to educated labour engagement
and entrepreneurial/ economic/environmental development in every nation.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are made in the light of the facts and arguments set
forth in this paper.
[1]. The subjects of business administration and business education should
henceforth be viewed, studied and applied with respective due emphases on
corporate professional practice and student teacher preparation for professional
teaching, research and community-based educational development. At the same
time, business education should reflect the bidimensional coverage of business
administrative education and business teacher education.
[2]. The relatively new specialist modules of business education such as
management science/ operations research, technology management,
management information systems (MIS), information technology – IT (Sawyer,
2000), and business ethics should be treated with renewed emphasis. At the
same time, business-community conflict management, entrepreneurial
education (Okala, 2004), business games, e-business/e-commerce and business
policy/strategy should also be included on the business education core
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 10
curricula and treated with the utmost seriousness which they deserve today.
This will ensure thegreater functionality of business education for the business
education graduate today.
[3]. Business education should also be included on the undergraduate general
studies curriculum as implied in Adeoye (2008).
[4]. The e-learning systems which the new Rivers State Sustainable Development
Agency (RSSDA, 2008) is collaborating with Intel Corporation to install and
operate in the state education sector can be a most potent means to realising this
suggested liberalisation of business education if it is adopted and implemented
nation-wide in Nigeria.
[5]. Business administration graduates wishing to make a career in today’s more
attractive teaching service should first of all take advantage of the occupational
conversion opportunities provided by such postgraduate degree programmes as
the PDE (i.e. PGDE). Without this effort, they cannot meet the registrability
requirements of the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
REFERENCES Abolo, E. M. (1998). Business process re-engineering: Logic and critical success
factors. Business and Management Journal, 1 (3), 46-52. Adeoye, S. (2008). Giving vent to education without borders. Tell, 28 July (30), 58.
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 11
Aderinoye, R. (2002). Literacy assessment practices (LAP) in selected developing countries: Nigeria.
http://www.literacy.org/products/ili/pdf/LAPNigeriaCsetota.pdf. Akinyele, C. I. (1995). A handbook on management consulting. Ibadan: Heinemann, 22-
68. Anatsui, T. (2008). Human literacy: a proactive tool for crisis management. In
Proceedings of the International Conference on the Nigerian State, Oil Industry and the Niger Delta. Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayela State, 11-13 March, 869-883.
Artenstein, N. (2008). Rwanda’s IT revolution. African Business 42 (334), 32-33. Barnett, R. A., Ziegler, M. R. and Byleen, K. E. (2000). Applied mathematics for
business, economics, life sciences and social sciences. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 885-895.
Business Eye (7-13 April, 2008). Nigeria leads African telecom growth. Business Eye, 2
(13), 26. Cooper, D. R. and Schindler, P. S. (2003). Business research methods. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1-28. Ibekwe, O. U. (1984). Modern business management. Owerri: New Africa, 2-11. Good, W. (2004). Prospects of the youth in our advancing world of high technology.
African Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 5 (1), 152-157. Gupta, V. (2007). Secret guide to computers. New Delhi: Dreamtech, 3-4. Hillier, F. S. and Hillier, M. S. (2003). Introduction to management science: a modelling
and case studies approach with spreadsheets, 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1-22.
Hillier, F. S. and Lieberman, G. J. (2005). Introduction to operations research, 8th ed.
Boston; McGraw-Hill, 8-24. Meheux, E. S. (2000). Factors in the employability and job
performance rating of secretarial education graduates in Port Harcourt based firms. Unpublished BSc Project Report, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt.
Menon, M. and Rama, K. (2006). Quality indicators for teacher education. Vancouver, Canada/Bangalore, India: National Assessment and Accreditation Council –NAAC/Commonwealth of Learning-Col, 41.
Ministry of Education, Islamabad (2006). National information and communications
March , 2011 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING AREAS (JEDA) VOL.19 (1).
w w w . j e d a - u n i p o r t . c o m Page 12
technology strategy for education in Pakistan Islamabad: Author/Education Sector Reform Assistance Program ESRAP, 1-28.
Munasinghe, M. (1989). Computers and informatics policy and issues for third word development. In Munasinghe, M.ed., Computers and informatics in developing countries. London: Butterworths, 8-40.
Okala, O. F. (2004). Unemployment experiences in Nigeria: the impact of vocational
skills training. Journal of Pedagogy and Development, 10 (1), 25-33. Okorosaye-Orubite, A. K. (2008). Education and sustainable development in Nigeria in
the Niger Delta: the role of the youth. Proceedings of the International Conference on the Nigerian State, Oil Industry and the Niger Delta. Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, 11-13 March, 1002-1013.
Omole, W. (2003). Integration of IT into the Nigerian university system. International conference paper on the theme, e-Nigeria at the 2003 International Conference on Information Technology, Abuja, Nigeria, 10-12 March, 1-11.
Osahogulu, D. J. (2007). Enhancing the administrative effectiveness of Nigeria higher educational institutions through computer-based management information systems. Port Harcourt: Alheri, 1-46.
Oyinkari, P. I. (2006). Start your own business. Lagos: Mikro, 170.
Pitke, M. V. (1989). Application of information technology to development. In Manasinghe, M., ed, Computers and informatics in developing countries. London: Butterworths, 64-70.
Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency-RSSDA (2008). Technology enabled learning. Port
Harcourt: Author, 1-17. Rosen, K. H. (1999). Discrete mathematics and its applications. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 593-628.
Sarkar, S. K. (2006). A textbook of discrete mathematics. New Delhi: S. Chand, 1-5.
Sawyer, E. E. (2000). Progress in office automation among business and government offices in Port Harcourt: Implications for the secretarial profession. Unpublished B.Sc Project, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, 20-32.