New basic education curriculum to cater for the vulnerable —NERDC

THE Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), has developed a new curriculum that will cater for the education of the overage and vulnerable children under the accelerated basic education programme.

According to the council, the curriculum is designed for the education of children who are overage to continue schooling from where they stopped after a long period and those whose education had been interrupted due to conflicts, disaster and socioeconomic reasons.

It is also for those who are identified as internally-displaced persons; street children from ages 10-18, who never enrolled in school or dropped out before completion of their basic education.

Executive Secretary of NERDC, Professor Junaidu Ismail, said the new curriculum was developed in collaboration with Plan International, under the EU-Borno project being funded by European Union.

He spoke at the formal presentation of the curriculum to the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu in Abuja, disclosing that the accelerated basic education programme and the curriculum was approved for implementation by the National Council of Education at its 64th meeting in Port Harcourt in 2019.

He said: “The programme was piloted in Borno with 54 learning centres with over 8,000 learners enrolled. Preliminary result from the piloting shows that the programme is indeed a way out of the menace of out-of- school children in Nigeria,” he said.

Ismail added that the programme was designed to provide the recipients with equivalent certified competences for basic education using effective teaching and learning that match their cognitive maturity.  It is a flexible age appropriate programme which aim is to provide access to education for disadvantaged over-aged out-of-school children and youths between ages 10 and 18 years.

He said: “It has prospects for mainstreaming learners to move into relevant levels of schooling. The target groups for this accelerated basic education programme are; those who never started schooling and are over-aged to start from the foundation which is primary one.

“It is for this reason that the curriculum selected strategically subjects to be taught in this programme namely; English Language, (for reading and writing skills,) Mathematics, Nigerian history and values, basic science and technology and one Nigerian language.

“These are the five subjects that have been selected. The structure is from level one – this level has stage one, which covers primary one curriculum context and stage two which consists of primary two curriculum context and stage three with primary three curricula.

“The Level two: consists of primary 4, primary 5 and primary 6 curricula. The level three covers curriculum context of JSS1 – JSS3 curriculum. Each level will run for one academic year, with three terms similar to the regular school programme but with a flexible timetable and learner friendly centres,” NERDC boss explained.

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu in his remark, announced plan to embark on national rollout of the accelerated basic education programme as part of efforts to reduce the number of out-of-school children and improve literacy in the country.

He said the projection of the government was that in the next five years, the country should attain 90 per cent literacy rate, stressing that the government would work assiduously towards achieving that.

“Government is upbeat with the success recorded in the pilot phase of the programme in Borno State where the ABEP was implemented in 54 centres with over 8,000 learners enrolled,” he said.

The minister, who was represented by the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Arc. Sonny Echono, lamented the problem of obsolete curriculum being used in schools over time, saying the review of the basic education curriculum was long overdue.

He revealed that the National Universities Commission (NUC) had commenced review of curriculum of universities and that this would be ready for a formal launch.

Adamu said: “100 per cent of subject areas have had their curriculum reviewed in our universities and the national public launch is planned to take place soon. Similar thing is being done for National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

“We are pleased that NERDC is focusing on the vulnerable population. The national rollout will start with other sister states of Yobe, Adamawa and other endemic states like Zamfara, Benue, and even Ebonyi and across the country to ensure that the number of Nigerians who are considered illiterates will tinker down within a short time.

“Our initial projection in the next five years is that we should attain 90 per cent literacy rate and we will work assiduously towards that,” he said.

Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, said the accelerated basic education programme would have a lot of impact on basic education in the country.

He noted that the last National Personnel Audit conducted by the commission indicated that Nigeria has over 10.1 million out-of-schools; this he described as worrisome.

Bobboyi further expressed concern that the number of out-of-school children is expected to go higher with the abductions of school children, saying that is why the programme is very important.

He said: “We lose our children principally, when they transit from primary school to the junior school. By the time they reached JSS, about 45 per cent would have dropped out and we have to address this.

“The bulk of out-of-school children are from the Northern region which is about 75 per cent according to the last National Personnel Audit. There are some other states that we have to pay attention to like Akwa-Ibom,” he said.

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