For Nigeria and other West African countries to grow education tourism, there is a need to infuse dance, fashion and music styles into the education curriculum to attract other students around the globe, Funmi Modupe, the principal consultant of Schoolingyonda, has said.
According to her, Nigeria and West African countries must focus on the marketing of local music, dance and fashion to the world to harness the huge potential and population advantage.
Speaking on ways to improve education tourism in West Africa as part of the year 2023 celebration of International Day of Education, Modupe said the introduction of innovative programmes infused into African traditional music, fashion and dance industry in public and private institutions, will increase the inflow of foreign exchange into the country.
Modupe said the African continent has all the necessary skills and talents to harness the economic benefits of creative arts, adding that education tourism is one of the different forms of tourism that provides the best education to students and enhances knowledge.
Modupe further said that Schoolingyonda is an educational consultancy based in Nigeria that focuses on EduTourism which is to simply showcase Nigeria’s exceptional talents to the world.
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According to her, the increase in education tourism is based on the growing popularity of attaining knowledge and technical competencies from the best destinations around the world.
“Music, fashion and dance are areas in entertainment that the whole world has already identified as Nigeria’s speciality. We initiate a dance step, the entire world copy and via modern technology, it goes viral across different social channels,” Modupe said.
Therefore, she said, there is a pressing need for Nigeria to augment the existing programmes, especially in her tertiary institutions and centres of learning to drive the growth in education tourism.
“Nigeria has some unique dance styles which can be researched, recorded, designed and crafted into programmes to be learnt by students from diverse regions. This will further increase the interest of young black people in the arts and creativity,” she said.
She called for collaboration between government institutions, administrators in the education sector, parents and students to bring dance and music into academic learning for posterity, developing history and increasing diversity.
“Restructuring the arts with a good blend of traditional and contemporary dance will spark positive global attention,” Modupe said.
Schoolingyonda is an educational consultancy service with the goal to offer students personalised study, thereby assisting parents and their wards to acquire opportunities abroad.
