FG, states lax in enforcement of national school curriculum –NAPTAN

THE national president of Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, has accused government at both federal and state levels of being weak in enforcing the national school curriculum, especially at both primary and secondary school levels.

He said the weakness had created undue opportunities for many children, especially in private schools, to skip a whole academic season or more and jump to next class.

Danjuma stated this is an exclusive conversation with Tribune Education, saying that by national school curriculum and based on the country’s 6-3-3-4 education system, every child is expected to spend six years in primary school and another three years in junior secondary school before transiting to senior secondary school for another three years, and so forth.

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Going by that calculation, he pointed out, a child would have acquired right knowledge and skills, exposure and experience expected of him or her at that level of education.

“But what we see nowadays in the country is that many students skip primary five or six, or both and go straight to junior secondary school and also skip Senior Secondary School 3 and go to tertiary school.

“And that is why majority of such students find it difficult to cope with the realities of life, especially in the higher institutions where they are expected to live some level of independent life, and also why students hardly want to go to technical schools,” he noted.

While also blaming parents for rushing their children to acquire knowledge and skills beyond their age capacity, Danjuma urged government to enforce the national education policy with a view to achieving its right objectives in the interest of quality education.

He, however, said that the leadership of NAPTAN would continue to engage parents to allow their children to follow curriculum, rather than skipping part of the process.