BEGINNING from the 2025/26 academic session, the overhauled curriculum for primary and secondary schools in Nigeria takes effect. As announced by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, the streamlined curriculum effectively lays to rest the old one under the 6.3.3.4 educational system that was adopted in the mid-1980s. The new curriculum is designed, said the Minister, to reduce subject overload, promote skill development, and align Nigerian education with global best practices.
The adoption of the new curriculum is a clear indication of the failure of the old system, which was encumbered by severe limitations such as insufficient and poorly trained teachers, inadequate funding, poor infrastructure like electricity and workshops, shortage of instructional tools and abandonment of crates of materials, and ineffective policy implementation and monitoring. Corruption and ethnic bigotry are also referenced as some of the key challenges of the old system.
Consequently, the old curriculum failed to achieve the goal of equipping students with relevant vocational skills, thereby increasing the skills gap in the economy. In fact, it enhanced the dependency on artisans from neighbouring countries for skilled labour. Overall, it triggered catastrophic policy failure.
Over the years, there had been loud outcry over the dysfunctional state of the 6.3.3.4 curriculum especially in connection with secondary education. A fine piece of policy it was, but inherent implementation challenges had it effectively compromised and finally crippled over time.
Perhaps previous administrations perceived the weaknesses and challenges confronting the system but failed to address them. It stood as a threat to national development, in our esteemed view.
The President Bola Tinubu administration deserves commendation for its analysis and subsequent overhaul of the old curriculum, which from its overview is aimed at progressively advancing the frontiers of national development. It’s strong focus on giving future leaders from basic to secondary schools the strategic educational foundation for the attainment of set goals and objectives points to a revolutionary style of building the nation.
In reviewing the curriculum, Dr. Alausa said that the Federal Ministry of Education collaborated with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), National Business and Technical Education Board (NABTEB), and other critical stakeholders in curriculum development.
Under the rebranded system, the curriculum is fashioned to train learners from primary (basic) one to SSS three, each category with a required number of subjects that are considered adequate and normal. In primary 1 to 3, for instance, pupils will be taught between nine and eleven subjects; primary 4 to 6, between 11 and 13 subjects; JSS 1 to 3, 12 to 14 subjects; and SSS 1 to 3, eight to nine subjects.
Further analysis of the curriculum shows that sharper focus will be on five core areas, namely humanities, sciences, business, one trade subject, as well as the core general courses. Only three Nigerian languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, are to be offered. Nigerian history will be taught from primary one to JSS 3. At the SSS level, a new subject, Citizenship and Heritage Studies, a merger of Nigerian history, civic education and social studies, shall be taught.
The relevant trade subjects introduced under the streamlined curriculum include Solar PV Installation and Maintenance; Fashion Design and Garment Making; Livesock Farming; Beauty and Cosmetology; Computer Hardware and GSM Repairs; and Horticulture and Crop Production. We perceive that other trade subjects, for instance Welding and Fabrication, are duly reserved for the technical colleges, as it were.
With the dawn of a refreshing era in Nigeria’s educational development, we strongly believe government at all levels will work assiduously to avoid the pitfalls of the past by ensuring top notch implementation of the new curriculum. We believe the country has over the years produced sufficient and well trained teachers in all the subject areas to effectively and efficiently take on the responsibility.
Moreover, having well-equipped laboratories and workshops at the basic and secondary levels of education are essential to achieving the goals of the initiative. While we advocate adequate and speedy funding of the system, it is our strong view that the slightest hint of corruption in the new, that bedeviled the old system, should be quickly eliminated.
The quest for sustainable industrialization and socioeconomic growth and development of the nation, we believe, will be greatly enhanced with the foundation of the overhauled education curriculum for basic and secondary institutions. Assuredly, it is the SSS 3 products that eventually proceed to the various tertiary institutions where they are trained and equipped to drive the nation’s overall development.
