Academic Corruption and the Challenge of Unemployable Graduates in Nigeria: Implications for Entrepreneurship Development and Economic Growth

The Journal of Commerce, Vol. 4, No. 1, ISSN: 2218-8118, 2220-6043 Hailey College of Commerce, University of the Punjab, PAKISTAN ACADEMIC CORRUPTION AND THE CHALLENGE OF UNEMPLOYABLE GRADUATES IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH ADEBISI PIUS ADEMOLA Ph.D1 ramifications. For when man is given qualitative ADEBISI OBAWALE SIMEON2 education he becomes a creative and productive AROGUNDADE KAYODE KINGSLEY3 being and by extension agent of development or change. This is why Majasan (1998:1) affirmed ABSTRACT that, down the ages, some societies have made This paper aims to assess academic corruptness such waves and have contributed significantly and the challenge of unemployable graduates in to human progress either continuously or Nigeria noting their implications on occasionally when they have been able to rise entrepreneurship development and economic up to the desired standard of education. In other development. Based on a review of current work words sans or without qualitative education a in the area under study, and the implications of society is permanently sentenced to corruption, the work outlined the various retrogression. It is in realization of this that corrupt practices in academics and attributes of Nigeria’s philosophy of education is partly unemployable graduates. We found that anchored on the beliefs that: academic corruption can lead to turning out (a) Education is an instrument for unemployable graduates, which could possibly national development lead to low entrepreneurial ability and (b) Education fosters the worth and consequently engendered low economic development of the individual for development. Our conclusion is that, for our each individual’s sake, and for the nation tertiary institutions to produce general development of the society employable graduates required for national (National Policy on Education, development, corruption must stop in our 2004) nation higher institutions. We recommended Nigeria’s philosophy of education therefore is adherence to principle of rule of law; sincerity based on the development of the individual into on the part of agency and administrator to the a sound and effective citizen (Ibid). rule guiding decision process; and family, religious group and social groups to act as To achieve this, the National Policy on agent of change by joining the crusade against Education provided further that the quality of corruption. instruction at all levels has to be orientated or Key Words: Academic corruption, tailored towards inculcating the following unemployable graduates’ entrepreneurship values: development, economic development . Respect for the worth and dignity of the individual INTRODUCTION . Faith in man’s ability to make rational Generally speaking, qualitative education is one decision of the fundamental instruments by which any . Moral and spiritual principles in inter- human society can be transformed in all personal and human relations . Shared responsibility for the common 1 FEDERAL COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, AKURE, good of society ONDO STATE, [email protected] . Provision of the physical, emotional and 2 DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION psychological development of all UNIVERSITY OF ADO-EKITI, NIGERIA children and [email protected] . Acquisition of competencies necessary 3 DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION for self-reliance (Ibid) UNIVERSITY OF ADO-EKITI, NIGERIA However today, hardly are these values [email protected] inculcated in the students in our tertiary Correspondence e-mail: [email protected] educational institutions. Where they are being 1 Academic corruption and the challenges of unemployment in Nigeria inculcated they are half-heartedly or perversely This matter is not a matter of a generation (my transmitted. Hence, the challenge of generation) condemning a younger generation unemployable graduates in the country. Today rather, that is the reality steering us in the face. we are all worried about the quality of Indeed guess estimate has put the level of graduates that are churned out by our tertiary incompetence of our graduates at about 80%. educational institutions. This is because most of This phenomenon of unemployable graduates the graduates are grossly deficient in can of course be traced to a number of problems competence or capacity. The Director-General of that have been confronting our educational the National Youth Service Corps expressed this system. Key among them are poor funding; the concern when he soberly cried out on the phenomenal rise in the number of educational challenge of unemployable graduates at a forum institutions in the country without thus: corresponding hike in the manpower required In recent time, complaints from corps members to teach in the institutions; incessant industrial on the issue of incompetent graduates are actions by trade unions in the tertiary increasing at an alarming proportion. Presently, institutions and of course the problem of there are cases of graduates who are sent academic corruption. Of all these ills or bane of back to the scheme by their employers due to qualitative tertiary education in the country, our gross incompetence. The matter has central focus shall be the consideration of the degenerated to the worrisome level of graduates place of academic corruption in the emergence not being able to write a simple essay, give of the phenomenon of unemployable graduates. simple definition of some important terms or It is our contention here that although the remember the topics of subjects in their standards of our curricula are very high, areas of specialization. (Mitsga, 2010) however, because of the perverse manner in He revealed further that: Indeed, the scheme which the curricula are administered we cannot had to withdraw some of them from secondary but have the challenge of unemployable schools as they were not able to communicate in graduates in the country. simple correct English. They responded to questions only in incoherent sentences or pure Conceptual Clarification pidgin. Therefore, it is obvious that the level of In order to gain adequate insight to the topic we cognitive learning acquired by these graduates defined the two operative concepts in this topic from the institutions falls far short of the namely academic corruption and unemployable standard set for Nigeria’s tertiary institutions by graduates. the Federal Government. (Ibid) Several scholars have provided different definitions of corruption. In a sense, corruption Further still, many Nigerians today are scare or has been defined as wrongdoing by those in afraid of consulting newly graduated medical special position of trust. The term is also doctors when they are sick because they feel commonly applied to self benefiting conduct by that many are hardly better than quacks; many public officials and others dedicated to public prefer to look for succour from road side service (Microsoft Encarta, 2009). In another mechanics and electricians rather than from our conception, it has also been defined as mechanical and electrical engineers. Our First “deliberate bending of the system to favour Class and Second Class Upper graduates of friends or hurt foes, any misbehaviour, today are hardly better than Second Class deviation from or perversion of the system or Lower and Third Class of yesteryears. Or what misleading or giving wrong or distorted could have been responsible for six First Class information about things people ought to know graduates of Nigerian universities admitted to etc (Adamu Ciroma cited in Akinnayojo, 2005). the African University of Science and Corruption has also been seen as being Technology, Abuja for postgraduate studies to synonymous with the giving and taking of abandon their scholarships? The answer I found bribes. Still in another sense, the Chamber 20th in The Nation’s report (The Nation, May 13, Century Dictionary interprets that to be corrupt 2010:41) that, it was because they could not cope is to make putrid, to taint, to debase, to spoil, to with the academic rigours of the university. 2 The Journal of Commerce, Vol. 4, No. 1, ISSN: 2218-8118, 2220-6043 Hailey College of Commerce, University of the Punjab, PAKISTAN destroy the purity of, to pervert, to bribe etc. of corruption is that it occurs in the academic (cited in Ibid) setting. The Encyclopedia of Social Science (2nd Edition) Unemployable Graduates: Ordinarily also defines corruption as the perversion or when an individual acquires some measure of abandonment of a standard. Although, the training or skill in any field in any tertiary focus of each definition appears slightly institution, it is generally believed that apart different, however the common denominator is from knowing the basic concepts in such area of the glaring fact that corruption implies specialization, he must be able to demonstrate wrongdoing that is averse to by the society the skill or knowledge practically or apply the because of its pernicious effect on the society. knowledge in the relevant areas if gainfully This is why the Thesareaus dictionary gives its employed and must also possess strength of other synonyms as dishonesty, immorality, character. Any graduate that is bereft of all venality, harm, debasement, vice and these can be simply described as unemployable degeneracy etc. graduate. In a nutshell therefore, an Corruption is a universal phenomenon, and it unemployable graduate is one that is takes place in different spheres of life: business, incompetent and morally unfit to be employed or corporate

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