The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Niger State chapter, has hailed the federal government’s reversal of a policy merging the Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK), the Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) and other subjects in the basic education curriculum.
The federal government recently came under attacks from Nigerians over its adjustments in academic policy which made the Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) and the Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) non-distinctive subjects in the basic education curriculum.
The new order by the, Alhaji Adamu Adamu-led federal Ministry of Education soon made some states in the north, Niger State inclusive, to compel Christian students in public schools to compulsorily offer IRK.
Some Christian students in Zarumai Secondary School, behind Government House, our correspondent gathered, were forced to offer part of IRK as compulsory courses before being allowed to graduate and this did not go down well with CAN in Niger State.
With the news of the reversal to statusquo, however, Niger State Chairman of CAN, Revd. Mathias Echioda, has urged the state government to immediately implement the federal government’s directives if they want the best for the students.
Echioda said, “This showed that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government listens to the people who voted it into power. It is a welcome development because a government that does not listen to the people will have itself truncated.
“A responsible government listens to the electorate when constructively criticised. Criticisms are not condemnation but a way of raising observations on issues that could negatively affect the image of the government and cause breach of peace”.
The CAN chairman said, “If you lead a people and they are not attuned with what you are doing then there is a problem. The initial step in the first place was a wrong one and they couldn’t really convince us on why the change in the first place and that was why we raised objections.
“We had the CRK and IRK were before now standing on their own each befoe now and going on smoothly, but beyond the embarrassment of government coming up with the idea of not making each of the subjects stand alone, we are grateful that they listened to common sense and Nigerian’s cries”.
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