Executive Secretary of Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Professor Ismail Jinadu on Tuesday called for an urgent need to create opportunities for Students across the country to acquire the relevant trade and entrepreneurship skills needed for poverty eradication, job creation and wealth generation.
Professor Jinadu who stated this during the high-level policy Committee meeting on the new Secondary Education Curriculum Structure and Benchmarks held in Abuja, applauded the contribution of various stakeholders toward improving the quality of education in Nigeria.
While reiterating the present administration’s commitment towards ensuring the full implementation of the activities contained in the Roadmap for the Education Sector (2024-2027), he expressed optimism that the Nigerian Government will use education to reverse the seemingly persistent challenges confronting the nation.
According to him, the current Senior Secondary Education Curriculum which came into being during the 2011 academic year, came about after we conducted a thorough review of the school curricula starting at the primary school level.
He observed that: “the old Senior Secondary Education Curriculum was found to be no longer relevant to the overall objectives of our education in terms of human capital development, job creation, value reorientation and poverty eradication. Additionally, there was a pressing need to achieve the Education for All (EFA), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the homegrown National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).
“There was also the urgent need to create opportunities for Students to acquire the relevant trade and entrepreneurship skills needed for poverty eradication, job creation, and wealth generation as well as consolidate the foundation for ethical, moral, and civic values acquired at the basic education level.
“It has been 12 years since the introduction of the current SSEC. You will agree with me, ladies and gentlemen, that times have changed, the world has advanced, new ideas have emerged, knowledge has progressed, new global goals have been set, new skills created, and new technologies developed.
“The only way we can effectively respond to these changes and give our children the chance to develop new skills and competencies for thriving in the contemporary world is to give them the necessary learning opportunities through curriculum reform.
“Let me inform you that our main goal in this current initiative is to develop a curriculum that not only satisfies the demands of the period but would also help us to build the future that we desire as a nation. Through this revision process, we hope to better position Nigeria to contribute to the global agenda.
“We recognize that the curriculum is an outcome of the decisions of the people as to what knowledge, skills, values, and competencies students should learn in school for them to live and meaningfully contribute to the development and growth of society.
“In order to ensure that the curriculum really reflects the needs and ambitions of all Nigerians, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) launched a number of programmes to intricately engage stakeholders.
“These specifically are the national stakeholders’ dialogue and nationwide needs assessment study that afforded us the opportunity to have in-depth conversations with teachers and school managers on important issues pertaining to the SSEC implementation.
“The national dialogue, which took place in each of the six geopolitical zones, namely, South-East, South-South, South-West, North Central, North-East, and North-West, was the first of its kind in the history of curriculum development in Nigeria, and indeed, in most parts of the world.
“The dialogue was a stakeholders’ consultative forum where Nigerians, including students, shared their opinions on the challenges and expectations relating to the curriculum in terms of its contents, method of delivery, and core learning experiences. The dialogue afforded us the rare opportunity of deeply engage with students on what they want to learn and how they would want to learn such.
“It also gave us the chance to have critical stakeholders, including some of you here today, to actively participate in the design of the architectural framework for the review of the curriculum.
“In line with best practices, NERDC collated and harmonised the views, inputs and suggestions of stakeholders including students to come up with the guidelines and framework for the review of the SSEC. The guidelines provide a clear roadmap for the review of the Senior Secondary Education Curriculum. The development of the guidelines followed through several stages which involved curriculum experts, teachers and policymakers.”
According to him, the validation workshop involved professional bodies, members of the academia, practitioners in the industry, development partners and a cream of government agencies.
Honourable Minister, distinguished participants, all these processes were painstakingly carried out with the sole aim of arriving at a globally competitive competency and outcome-based curriculum that will take care of critical emerging issues and provide the platform to instil 21st-century skills in our students. It is also important to have a curriculum that will focus more on what the learners can do rather than what they can know.
On his part, Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman while thanking the leadership of the Council for the initiative, said the review was overdue.
While noting that the curriculum review was supposed to be done annually, Professor 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 be sure that our students, the society and the country provide the best training and appropriate qualification for pupils, in the primary, secondary and quality graduates at the national level.
“This is a very important milestone and I want to commend your agency for it,’’ Mamman said.
He also advised that all relevant stakeholders should be involved, saying when stakeholders are involved, things would not go wrong.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then