Nigerian varsity curriculum producing parasites, unemployable graduates

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A former minister of education, Professor Tunde Adeniran, has lamented that the university curriculum being implemented in Nigeria is outdated and producing “parasites and unemployable graduates” in the country.

However, the National Universities Commission (NUC), said the new universities curriculum – the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), designed to address some of these challenges, would now takeoff officially in all universities during the 2023/24 academic session.

Adeniran, an ex-Board of Trustees member of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), in his new book, ‘Some Thoughts on Education in Nigeria’, recently presented to the public in Abuja, also noted that part of the emerging challenges besetting university education in Nigeria is the disregard for the purpose and essence of university education.

He, however, noted that the emerging challenges in the nation’s university system are part of the institutional and operational challenges affecting the progress of the nation.

He stated further that “one salient fact that needs to be borne in mind while looking at the state of university education in Nigeria today is the existence of the NUC as the only regulator of university education with the sole authority to determine the curricular content to be taught in the universities.

“It is also controversial that the approval or disapproval of academic programmes or units in all degree-awarding institutions is also the NUC’s prerogative, although it is rational and logical to invite professional bodies and relevant stakeholders for inputs.”

The spokesperson of the NUC, Mr Lawal Haruna Ajo, told Nigerian Tribune in Abuja, that the implementation of the curriculum was billed to takeoff nationwide in September 2023, noting, however, that due to incessant strikes actions by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), leading to distortion in academic calendar year, universities would now commence the implementation of the curriculum from 2023/24 academic session.

He added that some public universities had just resumed for their second semester and that to ensure uniformity, all institutions will begin the 2023/24 academic session with the new curriculum.

President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, however, insisted that the new curriculum was an imposition on the Nigerian University System (NUS) by the NUC, saying that the union has officially rejected the curriculum, even as it accused the commission of failing to abide by its mandate.

Meanwhile, the commission, which is the regulatory body for universities in Nigeria, noted that contrary to the assertions made by ASUU, it consulted with relevant stakeholders within the NUS before coming up with the new curriculum.

Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, had recently announced that the effective date for the commencement of the implementation of the newly developed Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) for the Nigerian University System (NUS) remained September 2023.

He spoke in his address at the stakeholders’ colloquium on the CCMAS organised by NUC, with the theme: ‘The State of the CCMAS, Sensitisation and Implementation.

He noted that the overarching goal of the colloquium was to finalise all necessary arrangements with stakeholders’ and to further sensitise them on the unique relevance of the CCMAS in the 21st Century towards national and global development as well as to convey the NUC’s unwavering resolve to commence the implementation of the new curriculum in the NUS.

He emphasised that 70 percent of the total content of the CCMAS was provided by the experts under the watch of the NUC and the 30 percent of the other contents ceded to the individual university senates to depict the uniqueness of their various universities was a welcomed novel idea which would impact positively on Nigerian Universities.

According to him, the curriculum was aimed at producing highly skilled and fit- for- purpose graduates in tandem with contemporary realities and applauded the commission for vigorously coordinating the system-wide curriculum exercise spanning four years in collaboration with a myriad of stakeholders within and outside of academia.

He applauded the universities that have so far concluded their work on the 30 percent component, while calling on those who were yet to submit theirs to endeavour to do so in the shortest possible time before the onset of the next academic session.

Other issues that were raised by Professor Adeniran in his 410 paged books, is what he described as the mushrooming spread of tertiary institutions in Nigeria vis-à-vis the exponential growth of universities.

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