Abstract

This paper reviewed the relationship between the type of education and school leavers’ unemployment with the view to highlighting its implications for educational planning in Nigeria. The concept of education, reasons for steady increase in the number of unemployed school leavers and what to do in order to curb educated unemployment were discussed. The reviewed works show that the rapid extension of formal education as a result of the Universal Basic Education and other forms of free education schemes of federal and state governments in Nigeria has itself been a significant factor in the growth of widening youth unemployment in Nigeria. The review however noted that school leavers’ unemployment can be reduced by making classroom education relevant to the society in which pupils and students build their careers. Another way of curbing youth unemployment is that government programmes for out-of-school education should be more attuned to the economic realities of the state or country as the case may be. The implication of this to the education planners is that they should be more proactive in identifying the unemployment problems, analyzing their relationships to the education system and the economy so that they can determine policy options.

Key words: Education, school-leavers, educational planning, unemployment in Nigeria.