NBC Makes Case for Broadcast Training Schools

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has blamed inadequate training schools for the lack of professionalism in the broadcasting profession in the country.

Mrs. Franca Aiyetan,  Zonal director of NBC, said at a forum for broadcast veterans and enthusiast that Nigeria only has two training centres which cannot be equated to the number of broadcast stations in the country.

According to her, “there are no adequate schools to train candidates on the professionalism of the job. Only NTA television college and FRCN trains people and it cannot be compared or equated to about 400 broadcast stations in the country.”

While calling for more partnership to increase the number of trained personnel in the field, Mrs. Aiyetan urged that the practical aspect of the profession be introduced into the curriculum of tertiary institutions.

“NBC wants to ensure that stations meet the best standard and it can achieve this if schools introduce students to the rudiment of the profession in school.  The media is dynamic, new things evolve daily,” she said.

“We are in the age of convergence, digital switch over. The world will be switching over by March 2015 and unlike some countries who have already switched, Nigeria has decided to wait till January 2015 to avoid mistakes made by those who rushed into it.”

Also speaking on the importance of the seminar, Lola Oladimeji, , the organizer, said the broadcast world evolves, hence the need to train and retrain in order to get people abreast of what goes on in the broadcasting field.

She also disclosed that the seminar will help reduce the rate of unemployment because most of them will become independent broadcasters and producers.

She said, “We want to address a situation whereby the graduates that are churned out from our institutions don’t rely on government and private sector rather they will be adequately trained to become independent broadcasters and producers which will in turn reduce the rate of unemployment.

 “We are aware of the challenges posed by new media but the truth is, it is not everybody  that has access to new media. You go to villages and all you see is the small boxes of TV.  We are looking at how we can bridge the gap between new and traditional media to achieve a win-win situation.”

Papers were by the Dr. Armstrong Idachaba, Sadiq Daba, Aro Leonard, Meka Akerejola, and Matilda Duncan on broadcasting policies, ethics and practices in Nigeria, television broadcasting: nature, prospects and challenges, structure and programme creation in broadcast industry, and radio broadcasting nature, structure and challenges.

About 100 students from Bingham University, Nasarawa State attended the seminar.