Entrepreneurship should be introduced in curriculum

Kenyan employers have complained about ill-equipped graduates who do not meet their demands even after graduating from university with honours.

This has been attributed to the fact that the Kenyan education system fails to address the needs of the market hence continues to face criticism.

Millions of students therefore find themselves ill-equipped to meet the demands of a real working environment.

The Constitution recognises the need for education as a basic human need, and that the form of education should be that which has the ability to equip the learners with national values and life skills.

But how relevant is the Kenyan education to the job market when even after graduating, one is not able to get a job or create jobs?

The challenges faced by learned youths today could all be attributed to a poor education system.

The curriculum has been blamed for only teaching learners how to pass examinations and preparing students to be good job-seekers but not provide jobs.

Why should learners be taught and forced to read a lot of irrelevant material in schools? Why focus on content when it has no connection to what really matters? Our education focuses so much on content that is easily memorised and spewed out in an examinaiton then quickly forgotten.

We should stop over-emphasising passing examinations and let students express themselves in schools and discover what they really love. If the curriculum would equip learners with immediate life skills; skills that would enable the youth to adjust to the changing world, skills to create jobs, wealth, and skills that will encourage entrepreneurship among the youth, then ours would be an economically developed nation.

OFFER SOLUTIONS

The presence of unemployed graduates in the nation is a clear indication that our curriculum is very inadequate.

It is for this reason that I have the feeling that there is need for the curriculum to focus on equipping learners with knowledge in entrepreneurship.

Why should someone think of a startup business as their last option after losing hope in ever finding a job when they readily admit that they once thought of venturing into business?

After spending at least sixteen years in school, one should be able to offer solutions to many challenges they may face, and this can only be done with a good curriculum.

It is quite important therefore that the curriculum includes a properly designed and a well-implemented entrepreneurship programme to offer solutions to youth unemployment in the country.

The role of entrepreneurship in curbing unemployment cannot be over-emphasised hence the need to have it included as part of the curriculum.

The Centre for Youth Entrepreneurship Education notes that, “Effective youth entrepreneurship education prepares young people to be responsible, enterprising individuals who become entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers and contribute to economic development and sustainable communities.”

There is need for students to acquire necessary knowledge for job creation, skills for innovation, and also trade to serve them in a harsh economy that does not provide jobs. Acquiring entrepreneurship skills should therefore be a consideration for most youths. With entrepreneurship, one also stands a higher chance of self-employment.