The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC, has called for the review of the Senior Secondary School curriculum in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary of NERDC, Prof. Ismail Junaidu, made the call on Friday in Calabar at a one-day stakeholders’ dialogue for the South-South zone.
He said that the dialogue was part of efforts by the council to carry all stakeholders along in order to ensure acceptable curriculum for the country.
He added that there was the need to restructure, realign and revise the present curriculum which was introduced since 2011 to meet the current global developmental challenge.
“Ten years after the introduction of the current SSE curriculum, you will agree with me that, times have changed, the world has moved on, new ideas have been created, knowledge has advanced, new goals have been set, new skills have emerged, and new technologies have been developed.
“The only way we can catch up with these changes and create opportunities for our children to acquire new skills and competencies is to provide them with the requisite learning experiences through the revision of the curriculum,” he said.
According to him, the goal of the council is not only to develop a curriculum that meets the needs of the present, but “one that will as well enable us to create the future that we desire as a people”.
The executive secretary said that the council decided to engage stakeholders in order to ensure that the new curriculum reflects the needs and aspirations of all Nigerians.
He added that participants were expected, at the end of the dialogue, to come up with critical emerging issues that the senior secondary school curriculum should address.
Also speaking, Castro Ezama, Special Adviser to Gov. Ben Ayade on Education, described the idea of the review as a welcome development.
He said that for Nigeria to have quality and meaningful education, it has to review her secondary education curriculum periodically.
“The bedrock of the society is quality education. The time to review the secondary education curriculum is now because if we get senior secondary school education right, we will get our tertiary education back on track, ” he said.
One of the participants, Alabo Amuso, State Chairman of Parent Teachers’ Association, said the dialogue would afford him and his counterparts the opportunity to make contributions on how to move secondary school education forward.
