Streamlining civil - military education for national development in Nigeria

Abstract

The National Policy on Education in Nigeria defined tertiary education as the education given after secondary education. By that definition, all professional military training education in the country are tertiary education being post-secondary education. However, despite the rigorous, systematic and methodical trainings offered by military personnel, their certificates are not recognized as tertiary education certificates outside the military and as such retired personnel found themselves unemployable after military career and unable to participate in any meaningful national development activities. Using a qualitative research approach based primarily on social constructivism perspective, this paper sets out to investigate how to achieve equivalence between military training and civil tertiary education certificates to enhance national development in Nigeria. The basic assumption of the paper was that without integrating military and civil education certificates, retired military personnel cannot contribute to national development which constitutes colossal waste of highly trained human resources in the country. The findings showed that all military training courses’ certificates can be recognized if the military authorities will initiate the procedures of getting their training curriculum adjusted and discussed at the National Council on Education. The paper recommended that the Office of the Chief of Defence Staff should initiate the engagement of all relevant stakeholders to discuss military training curriculum and seek the accreditation of all the courses accordingly.