Practical and Technological Skills: An Inevitable Social Engineering Tool for Sustainable Development

Education is a social engineering tool that can impact the society as well as the individuals in the society hence, conscious efforts are regularly put in place by curriculum planners and educationists all over the world to design, redesign and review the contents of the educational curricular so as to measure up with immediate and anticipated challenges of human society. In conformity with this lofty desire, the curricular designed particularly for higher levels of education in Nigeria aims at fast-tracking development. Unfortunately, the realization of this goal leaved much to be desired because it is largely premised on the acquisition of theoretical skills. This has hindered personal and society development. This article, therefore, explored how an adequate educational framework can be provided within which the education curricular would facilitate both personal and society development and its sustainability. In doing this, the paper argued for the substantial inclusion of practical and technological skills as complement to the existing theoretical skills that characterized the curricular. It noted that an education curricular that concomitantly prioritizes both theoretical and practical knowledge is key to activating sustainable development in the twenty-first century human society. More so when such practical and technological skills encourage not only hands-on tasks but also facilitate self- reliance, moral excellence, competence, hard works which are indispensable ingredients for sustainable development. The article, therefore, promises to expand the existing paradigm of education for development which is predominantly embarked upon from a single and narrow perspective premised largely on the acquisition of theoretical skills, to include a more embracing and multi-dimensional practical and technological skills acquisition. When practical and technological skills complement the prevalent theoretical skills acquisition drive of the education curricular, this would offer an adequate framework that would facilitate and sustain development. The work employed argumentative and theoretical methods on the educational policies in Nigeria.