Abuja – Education stakeholders have lauded the introduction of the new Senior Secondary School curriculum but expressed worry about its implementation.
The curriculum was introduced in 2011 but takes full effect in the 2015/2016 academic session when the first set of students will be writing the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
It requires students to offer five compulsory subjects, namely, English Language, Mathematics, Civic Education, Entrepreneurship Studies and Computer Education.
The immediate past principal, King’s College, Lagos, Mr Oladele Olapeju, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that curriculum was the way to go in the technological age.
Olapeju, who recently retired from the Civil Service, described the curriculum as well formatted and diversified.
“I think with this kind of curriculum in place it has made us look like a serious country.
“While some are pursuing cognition, others will be pursuing technical and vocational studies so that at the end of the day we would come out with adequate production of men and women of skills in every sphere of life.
“We must come to terms that we are a manpower producing country and irrespective of where we find ourselves our curriculum has given opportunity to everybody.
“If you want to do hands-on-training, we have the trade subjects there for you and if you want to go in the way of academics they are all there. It is now diversified and all what matters is effective implementation.
“So I think it is a modern curriculum and not the analog type that we have been used to and so I think we all should be open and very prepared to embrace it in order to advance technologically,’’ he said.
Prof. Peter Okebukola, a, former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, described the curriculum as excellent.
Okebukola told NAN that the curriculum, if taken to any clime, would compete favorably if not even adjudged better.
He, however,
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the need for the regulatory bodies to ensure effective implementation of the curriculum.
“Do not let anybody deceive you, our curriculum at the secondary level is excellent.
“Every curriculum, however, must have three major parts, namely, the intending, implementing and the achieved.
“ The intending which is what is seen on paper should be able to be translated to the implemented which has to do with the practicality in the classrooms and eventually an evaluation of what has been achieved, which is what the learners have finally benefitted.
“However, there is nowhere in the world where we have a translated curriculum from the intended to the implementation,’’ he said.
Okebukola said that it was time the country began to understand that nations were all on their toes ready to move along with the technology.
He said that once school curricula were well implemented, the products from the system would help grow the economy.
Prof. Ismail Junaidu, the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Education Research and Development Council, said the curriculum was flexible.
Junaidu said there were only four compulsory subjects in the curriculum, including Computer Studies.
“This curriculum is the most flexible curriculum ever produced in Nigeria; a student is expected to take a minimum of eight subjects; maximum of nine subjects.
“Besides the four compulsory subjects, the students are free to take the remaining four or five from any of the groupings that have been made.
“These groupings are the humanities—English Literature, History, Religion and others; the science—Physics, Chemistry, Biology and others.
“Under Business Education, we have Accounting, Book keeping and others and then the technical,’’ he said.
He said that a student could take two or three subjects from sciences, two or three from arts, two or three from humanities and technical categories.
Junaidu said that the flexibility of the new curriculum would benefit students who wished to change their initial choice of course and career pursuits.
According to the executive secretary, under the Entrepreneurship studies, a student must take one out of the 34 but can take more than one if he so desires.
“This is where the role of the Guidance Counsellor becomes paramount because it is left for such officer to guide the students depending on the career that student wants to pursue,’’ he said.
But Prof. Sat Obiyan, Head, Political Science Department, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, said that the curriculum and the number of subjects at the secondary level was chaotic.
Obiyan noted that the course contents, subjects and the entire curriculum were not suitable for the students.
He stressed the need for a restructured and a much simplified basic education curriculum.
“I want to urge the new ministers of Education to set up a committee to determine the suitability of the current basic school curriculum and what should be done to correct it,’’ he said.
Similarly, Mr Akeem Lasisi, the Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), Ogun chapter, expressed concern over the viability of the new curriculum.
The ASUSS chairman told NAN in Abeokuta that although the system was a good initiative its implementation might pose some problems.
He said that like other failed reforms, education policies in the country, it had little or no place for key stakeholders, especially teachers in the decision making process.
Lasisi said most public schools in Ogun did not have enough teachers to handle the additional subjects that were introduced in the curriculum.
He alleged that the development had led to a situation, whereby schools forced more subjects on the few teachers, who did not even have the requisite knowledge and skills to teach the new subjects.
Lasisi also complained that the necessary facilities for the vocational subjects were not available in many schools.
He said that entrepreneurial subjects, for instance, could only be taught effectively in schools, where there were necessary and adequate facilities.
The union leader, therefore, urged government to invest in schools for the proper funding and effective implementation of the new curriculum.
Mr Ademuyiwa Ajayi, a teacher at Ipokia Comprehensive High School, a rural area in Ogun, said that poor power supply had hindered the practical teaching of the vocational subjects.
“On occasions when we had light, we often partner with some of the artisans around the school area to use their facilities since they are not available in the school,” he said.
Mr Niyi Adeoba, the Head, Guidance and Counselling Department of Shining Lights Private School, Abeokuta, criticised the introduction of the new subjects.
Adeoba alleged that the failure of technical and vocational schools across the country informed the new system.
He expressed the belief that entrepreneurial subjects should be taught in technical schools only.
Adeoba said the system did not allow for proper specialisation and would constitute distractions for the students.
“Students should be encouraged and groomed along the subjects for which they have natural abilities and which relate to their area of interest,” he said.
Mrs Victoria Okon, a parent, however, described the system as a good initiative capable of making the students self-reliant after their education.
“The system will help the students to acquire entrepreneurial skills from the commercial subjects with the capacity to set up their own businesses later in life.
In Ilorin, Alhaji Abubakar Ahmed, an expert in Curriculum and Assessment, urged the Federal Government to provide funds and expertise for the implementation of the curriculum to make it effective.
Ahmed, who is a Director, Kwara Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, described the new curriculum as a wonderful initiative of the Federal Government.
He said the policy should be backed up with strong commitment by providing funds and trainers to guarantee future prospects for the children.
The director said that the curriculum would afford students to learn
entrepreneurship skills that would make them stand on their own in the
future.
Mr Lawrence Oyeniran, the Permanent Secretary in Osun Ministry of Education, Osogbo, described the curriculum as a strategic move to make students self- reliant.
Oyeniran said the introduction of Entrepreneurship and Computer Studies as compulsory subjects would make students to become more skilled in their careers.
He, however, said that the new policy would not affect the chosen career of the students.
According to him, science students for instance, can choose four more subjects as Physics, Chemistry and Biology with one indigenous language to make up the maximum nine subjects required in the SSCE.
He further said that the inclusion of Civic Education was a welcome idea as it would revitalise the spirit of patriotism and nation-building.
“I do not think any serious minded people can query and fault the new curriculum, it is indeed long overdue, our curriculum cannot remain stagnant forever.
“The new subjects will improve the quality of our students and make them more responsible and responsive to their nation,” he added.
In Ibadan, Mr Waheed Olojede, the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Oyo State branch, said that the new curriculum was in a right direction.
He said curriculum would address the challenges of unemployment in Nigeria.
He said that previous education policies hardly addressed the
problem and this was why students graduated from school to become job seekers instead of job providers.
Olojede said that if the new curriculum was well implemented, it would
produce the education system that would serve the country better and bring about quality leadership.
He said that no new thing would succeed without some challenges and
urged the Federal Government to be ready to train teachers, who
would teach these subjects in order to achieve the desired goals.
An official of the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Oyo State chapter, said that the introduction of the new curriculum was untimely.
The ANCOPSS official, who preferred anonymity, said that secondary schools in the state had begun the implementation of the new curriculum but they had some challenges.
He said one of the challenges in the implementation was non- availability of poultry farms for students for practical work..
Rev Raphael Asaniyan, Secretary, Ondo State Quality Education Assurance Agency, compared the old and new Secondary School curricula, noting that both had the same number of prescribed subjects.
Asaniyan said that the teaching of Entrepreneurship might not be effective because of the shortage of specialised personnel and materials to be used. (NAN)
