Printing education and poverty eradication in Nigeria

Abstract

One of the key goals of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. In the Nigerian context,  unemployment is a major cause of poverty which can be eradicated through empowerment and wealth creation. Printing technology, a technical based  course offers benefits in this regards. Today, digital technologies have  brought a paradigm shift to the business models used in the printing industry. For this reason, an analysis of the printing curriculum being currently used in the polytechnics offering courses in printing technology is undertaken to find out how responsive the curriculum is to the needs of the contemporary printing industry. The findings show that the printing technology curriculum, although digital technology focused, is hugely production-based, requiring diversity to meet the current thinking in today’s printing and graphic communication industry. To this end a number of recommendations are made to strengthen printing education in Nigeria.

Keywords: Poverty, printing education, curriculum, digital technology