The Education Minister, Prof Tahir Mamman, has called for the inclusion of skill acquisition in the new curriculum for secondary schools in Nigeria.
This, he said, would help students to have better understanding of their interests and abilities, and improve them in decision-making, thereby leading to their personal and professional development.
Speaking, on Tuesday 19th December, 2023 in Abuja at a high-level Policy Committee Meeting on the Review of the Senior Secondary Education Curriculum, Mamman also called for the involvement of private school proprietors to get their input.
The minister was upbeat that the new curriculum would checkmate the out-of-school children phenomenon in the country.
The Guardian reports that the last time senior secondary curriculum was reviewed in the country was 12 years ago, precisely in 2011. The event was attended by chief executives of the National Examination Council (NECO), National Senior Secondary Education Commission, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, West African Examination Council (WAEC), commissioners of education from the 36 states, Head of Education Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory and other stakeholders in the senior secondary education sub-sector.
Mamman said: “This is certainly a very important event coming especially at this time when we are doing so much in the area of reforms to ensure that our students, the society and the country provide the best training and the appropriate qualification for pupils in the primary, secondary and at the tertiary level. This is a very important milestone. When you involve stakeholders, you cannot go wrong, particularly those who know where the shoes pinch.”
“The country is grappling with quality students, who have skills and the industry is in dire need of these skills. Some of these skills are not necessarily acquired at the tertiary level. They are skills, which could be infused into the programmes of students at the secondary school level.
“It is not every student who wants to go to university. Some, for whatever reason, may decide to pursue other careers, would have acquired some level of skill at that level.”
Earlier in his address, the Executive Secretary, NERDC, Prof. Ismail Junaidu, said the current Senior Secondary Education Curriculum was no longer relevant to the overall objectives of ‘our education in terms of human capital development, job creation, value reorientation and poverty eradication.’
Junaidu explained that the Council collated the views, inputs and suggestions of stakeholders, including students to come up with the guidelines and framework for the review of the curriculum.
The new curriculum, which will accommodate emerging issues, like climate change, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, cervical cancer, human rights, trade and entrepreneurship subjects, civil and security education among others, is expected to be released by 2024.
By Owede Agbajileke
