UNESCO: Nigeria’s School Curriculum Outdated, Overloaded

Cursory: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has called for a review of the existing curriculum in Nigeria’s education system. The call was made by the director of the International Bureau of Education (IBE), a division of UNESCO. According to him the curriculum was overloaded and outdated, making it important to change it to keep up with the the times. In response to this, the minister of state for education, in Nigeria, revealed that necessary actions were in motion to heed the call.

A reform of Nigeria’s educational curriculum is required to keep up with modern realities, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The call was made by Ydo Yao, the director of the International Bureau of Education (IBE), a division of UNESCO, on Tuesday in Abuja at a workshop on capacity development for representatives of the Federal Ministry of Education.

According to Mr. Yao, action must be taken to make the curriculum relevant in order to ensure that education is of a high caliber and that values, knowledge, and skills are fostered. According to him, the curriculum is a crucial and indispensable part of any educational program and is essential to changing education.

“You know, we used to say that curriculum is for education, while a constitution is for a democracy. It means the curriculum is the heart of education. So, when you talk about education, you are talking about content, programmes and learning,” Mr Yao explained.

“So, if you want to transform education, and you don’t transform what is at the core of it, which is the learning, content and the programmes, your transformation has no meaning.”

The curriculum, according to Mr. Yao, is overburdened, out-of-date, and lacking in contemporary growth, necessitating a review. He claimed that the training was implemented to improve the abilities of experts and officials inside the ministry in eight different theme modules.

Goodluck Opiah, the minister of state for education, claims that efforts have been made to restructure the curriculum.

Mr Opiah said:

”We recognise the fundamental role of curriculum in the drive for the attainment of globally agreed goals and country-specific aspirations. It remains the singular instrument capable of transforming the human capital base of a nation for effective contribution to nation-building and development.”

“Thus, in setting our education targets as articulated in the Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP) (2019 to 2022) for the education sector, curriculum and policy matters were identified and prioritised.” The minister added.

The ministry has continued to add knowledge and skills on entrepreneurship, job creation, and capital market studies to school curricula, according to Ismail Junaidu, executive secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research Development Council.In order to facilitate the curriculum’s implementation, Mr. Junaidu further said that teachers and education managers had been given resource materials.

“It is heart-warming to us at NERDC that this workshop is taking place at this time when we are set to review the senior secondary education curriculum. As part of preparations for the review, we have evolved a curriculum review model that is anchored on a participatory and equity framework,” said the NERDC chief.

He added, “A model that gives voice to all legitimate citizens in the curriculum development process.”

Source: gazetteng

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