In recent times, Nigeria’s basic, secondary and tertiary education curricula have been criticised for several reasons, including limited focus on skill acquisition to promote self-reliance and creating better opportunities for graduates towards surviving and creating job opportunities for themselves.
Experts attribute the problem to the curriculum being used over time, saying it is outdated to be able to meet the prevailing realities in the world.
The Executive Secretary of NERDC, Prof. Ismail Junaidu, during a high-level policy committee meeting on the New Secondary Education Curriculum Structure and Benchmarks, in December last year, confirmed that the curriculum is outdated.
“The old Senior Secondary Education Curriculum was found to be no longer relevant to the overall objectives of our education in terms of human capital development, job creation, value reorientation and poverty eradication.
“Additionally, there was a pressing need to achieve the Education for All (EFA), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the homegrown National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS),” he said.
He said there was urgent need to create opportunities for students to acquire the relevant skills for poverty eradication, job creation and wealth generation, as well as consolidate the foundation for ethical, moral and civic values acquired at the basic education level.
Prof. Ismail noted that to give children the chance to develop new skills and competencies for thriving in the contemporary world is to give them the necessary learning opportunities through curriculum reviews.
However, educationists, students and parents alike, said aside the review of curriculum, more is needed toward making a success of students learning and gaining knowledge in different skills.
A student, Flourish Ojo, expressed happiness in learning skills, saying she can now sew cloth for toys and is also learning to bake.
She said they were taught from time to time and they also learned from their home economic classes, though without much practical in school, but from other groups outside.
Most of the schools do not have equipped labs for practicals so most times students are asked to pay something to participate in the practical classes, she said.
“I want government to provide the facilities in our schools so that we can learn more things because if you don’t practice you will forget what you learnt,” she said.
A teacher, Esther Bulus, said the curriculum used in teaching has outdated content, along with lack of practical skills, rote learning, neglect of hands-on subjects and the use of technology to promote digital literacy skills despite the increasing role of technology in various aspects of life and work.
She, however, said the narrative is changing and the curriculum is being worked on because of the emphasis on students getting lifelong learning, which includes skills. Schools are now incorporating teaching of different skills and crafts to their students, she added.
“The truth is so many students may still not be able to tag along because of the duration of training as it is done by most public schools, groups or individuals for a short period of time. But if the schools have the right curriculum, teachers and facilities and run it over a period of time, that will make more sense,” she said.
The teacher maintained that learning skills is very vital for every student to be able to take care of themselves and contribute to the growth of the country as they may turn out to be employers of labour if they work hard.
She said learning skills should not only be on areas like tailoring, cooking, baking, woodwork and crafts, but should be more of developing talents inherent in the student such as marketing skills, music, acting, public speaking and leadership management among others.
“Government has to go beyond sending groups or individuals to train students on these skills to providing the necessary facilities in schools to enable the students to study and garner the required knowledge that will make them self-reliant in future,” she said.
The chairman of Voyage International School, Yussuff Oriyomi, said the learning of skills has not been enshrined in the curriculum because it is still being worked on by NERDC.
He said schools are incorporating skills and craft learning classes on their own accord to ensure their students are not left out.
Yussuff, however, said there’s a whole lot of effort from the government to incorporate skills into education at the polytechnic and university levels but that at the secondary level, more needed to be done.
“If you look at the 6334 system, the second stage, which is Senior Secondary School where students are meant to do woodwork, basic technology and others to acquire skills, but because that policy was not rigorously followed, it was later collapsed to become 9-3-4 system. So the vocational element was not seriously followed and I will really be happy if government can start the vocational education at the secondary level,” he said.
He said there are vocations like home economics, marketing, and entrepreneurial education but to run them you need to invest much.
“You need to invest in workshop because they are not theoretical knowledge; they are practical knowledge. For you to do woodwork work you need to have a carpentry workshop and for cooking and all that, you must invest in a good home economics lab or standard kitchen but that is not happening because the investment is insufficient in schools,” he said.
Oriyomi said there are interventions from the federal government, ministries, state governments and local governments but it is not yet cascaded to the level of secondary schools to have the facilities to run those programmes.
While noting that marketing, entrepreneurial education and home economics are subjects students write for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and have a curriculum on how to teach them, they could not be learned by just going to the class, they are supposed to be hands-on.
“So government needs to provide the laboratories and the kitchens that are needed for students to be able to learn the skills,” he said.
Government efforts
The present government has continued to emphasize the importance of incorporating skills in the education sector at all levels.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, during a stakeholders’ consultation meeting on the National Policy on Skills Development in Nigeria recently, said skill development is vital in shaping the future of education in the country.
He emphasized their shared vision of providing quality education that equips children with the skills they need to succeed and ensure that every child in Nigeria has access to inclusive and equitable education, and that the education system is responsive to the needs of the economy and society.
Meanwhile, to further boost skill development, the Presidency set up a committee.
Headed by the Minister of Education, the committee’s terms of reference include identifying skill training in MDAs and states, identifying dominant skills in the private sector, and devising strategies for standardisation, recognition, and certification.
The council also proposed a draft bill for the Nigerian Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) aimed at developing the skills of the nation’s workforce and improving the quality of skilled workers.
Speaking, Prof. Mamman, noted the importance of integrating skills into the entire education sector for Nigeria’s true transformation, saying, “The whole idea is to bring skills into the entire education sector if Nigeria is to be truly transformative. The work of this council will be a major driver in accomplishing that.”
He also pointed out the need for conducting skill surveys and labour market information to provide policymakers with reliable and timely data on job quality, skill gaps and policy design for poverty reduction.
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