The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was established in 1973 to promote the spirit of brotherhood and oneness among Nigerian youths. With the current economic, employment and security situations of Nigeria, it is important to reform the program. The needed reform is the type that should help to reduce unemployment and improve security in Nigeria. Let us see some of these needed changes.
One way of turning the system around is to ensure that the place of primary assignment of the corp member is related to his course of study. We need to grow beyond the era of posting most corp members to schools. How can we get the best from an engineer that is posted to a school as a teacher. Engineering graduates should be posted to engineering firms while people who study education should be posted to schools. This will enable them contribute their best to the economy.
Another change that should be featured in the program is that prospective corp members (PCM) should be posted to a state of their choice outside their state of origin. For this feature to work, PCMs should be allowed to choose any three state outside their zone of origin. NYSC should then post each of them to their first choice. If the available spaces are filled up in the first choice, they should be posted to their second or third choices.
A third approach is to provide six month vocational training followed by six month internship in the trade of choice for each corp member. For this to work, corp members should be made to make choice of their preferred trade in the orientation camp. They should thereafter be posted to approved training centres where they would be trained for six months. This should be followed by internship in firm practising such trades. At the end of the period, each corper should be given the tools and little start-up funds that will be required to excel in the trade. This will reduce extreme dependence on government employment.
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