The Minister of Education, Olatunji Alausa, has proposed extending the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program from one year to two.
This recommendation was made on Friday during a courtesy visit by the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, at the Minister’s office in Abuja.
In a statement posted on NYSC’s official Facebook page, Alausa also called for an expansion of the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Training Programme, advocating for more comprehensive training content for corps members.
He highlighted the need to deploy additional graduate teachers to rural schools to address staffing shortages.
Alausa commended NYSC’s digital initiatives to tackle certificate fraud among foreign-trained graduates in West Africa and praised the resolution of issues related to OND part-time graduates with full-time HNDs, who were previously exempted from national service.
He also mentioned ongoing efforts to digitize the verification process for foreign-trained Nigerian graduates and stressed the collaboration between the Ministry of Education and NYSC to strengthen the education sector and support national development.
Alausa encouraged NYSC to help foster more opportunities for young people to become job creators.
In response, NYSC Director General Brigadier General Nafiu praised the ministry’s efforts in advancing education and proposed creating a database for Nigerian students studying abroad to identify fraudulent degrees.
He reiterated NYSC’s commitment to aligning with the federal government’s policy directives and improving the program to better meet national needs.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan, reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to working with NYSC to improve the standards of education in Nigeria.
