Stakeholders in the educational sector met at a workshop on Tuesday to brainstorm on reviewing the Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC) in Nigeria.
Organised by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the meeting was a cross fertilisation of ideas towards making Nigeria’s educational curriculum part of the emerging innovations and life-long learning system which could place the country at par with the best nations.
To shed light on the significance of the event, the Executive Secretary of NERDC, Prof. Ismail Junaidu, said the workshop was another stage in NERDC’s efforts to democratize the curriculum development process, anchored on the philosophy of having all stakeholders who had contributed to school programmes.
He said, “This validation workshop is expected to take a holistic look at the guidelines with the intent of providing technically sound suggestions for improvement and adoption, afterwards.
“Specifically in this meeting, you will be expected to bring to bare your experiences and expertise on issues relating to the proposed curriculum structure and the implementation framework.”
According to Prof. Junaidu, NERDC in previous national dialogues had 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.
He said the process had provided a clear roadmap for the review of the SSEC, adding that the development of the guidelines followed through several stages which involved curriculum experts, teachers and policy makers.
Contributing, the Executive Secretary, National Senior Secondary Education Commission, Dr Iyela Ajayi, commended the NERDC management for the workshop, saying that it came at the right time since curriculum was subject to review periodically to meet best global practices.
Dr Ajayi, however noted that having an excellent curriculum is one thing, while its implementation remains the most important focus.
He said, “Therefore, as we embark on the task of reviewing the curriculum periodically, we must also focus on the important issue of curriculum implementation. “
Also speaking, the Director Educational Management, Ministry of Education, Kadija Liman, expressed her joy over the move by the NERDC to ensure that the nation’s school curriculum is restructured to meet the present global standards.
Mrs Liman said NERDC’s action on new curriculum had taken away some of the burden on the curriculum from the ministry, adding that the ministry would do all it could to ensure its implementation.
The Director Special Duties/States Operations, National Orientation Agency, David Akoji, stressed the need to include value re-orientation in the curriculum, towards inculcating value system in the lives of the younger generation.
Mr Akoji, also advised the Nigerian government to emulate other countries whose educational systems are excellent, with positive results.
Participants at the workshop included the representatives of ICPC, CBN, UNICEF, FIRS and professors from different academic endeavors.
