The National Board for Technical Education has committed to training graduates skilled in environmental health from the nation’s higher institutions of learning.

This commitment saw the development of curricula on environmental health technology with options in industrial safety and hygiene, and environmental health monitoring and surveillance.

The curricula development is collaboration between the NBTE and the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria.

The two bodies, NBTE and EHCON on February 5 began the development of a curriculum on environmental health specialities in 16 options.

The specialities were environmental health (8 options), public health (3 options), epidemiology and disease control (3 options) and water sanitation/hygiene (WASH) (2 options).

During the opening of a seven-day pre-critique workshop on development of the curricula on Monday in Kaduna, NBTE’s Director of Curriculum Development Department, Dr. Hatim Koko, said they would develop new curriculum content.

“It has not been done before, what we have on ground is environmental health technology. The wisdom of EHCON brought about some degree of innovations following the focus of the NBTE’s Executive Secretary,” he said.

Mr Koko explained that the board was unbundling a massive course specific areas that had to do with skills.

He mentioned some courses which were unbundled to include mass communication, computer science and its related options, and now on environmental health.

Mr Koko further said the board and EHCON were working on the development of curriculum on 16 options which had never been done.

He therefore, said the EHCON was widening its horizon in maintaining its specific focus to individuals within its areas of regulation and purview of professional regulation.

Mr Koko commended the EHCON’s Registrar for the foresight, adding that it would give a sequence in the operations and professional practice of the council.

He urged all the curriculum development stakeholders to ensure robust interactions that would provide content that would stand the test of time.

Earlier declaring the workshop open, the ES of the NBTE, Prof. Idris Bugaje, restated the board’s commitment in ensuring skilled graduates and a developed community and the nation at large.

Mr Bugaje, represented by his Special Assistant, Prof. Diyauddeen Hassan, said the curricula development was part of the board’s matrix in addressing skills gaps at the national and international level.

Also, the Registrar of the EHCON, Dr. Yakubu Baba, said the council had set out to rebrand the environmental health profession to make it in line with that of the 21st century.

Mr Baba, represented by his Deputy, Dr Isah Adamu, explained that the council wanted to make the environmental health profession to be in the private sector, however being an only government recognised entity.

“We want to also be in the private sector, so that environmental health professionals, who are licensed, will now be able to practise the profession outside the public domain. Without skills, one may not be able to practise effectively in the private sector and that is why the skills of graduates of the HND environmental health technology are meant to be upscaled,” he said.

Mr Baba urged the participants to effectively render their service not only to the environment health profession, but to the service of Nigeria and Nigerians at large.

He said, “We cannot grow as a nation until we have a better health outcome which doesn’t come easily if we don’t take care of the environmental health sphere which has been the bane of Nigeria’s health outcome.”

(NAN)