Education is the life wire of any modern society. As medieval societies give way to industrial ones, the place of modern education becomes of great priority. Some have migrated from less developed to developing nations due to the impact of investment made in education in the last decades of the 20th century.
The emergence of the Asian Tiger economies like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Hong Kong confirms this. These nations maintained exceptionally high growth rate, in excess of 7 per cent a year, and rapid industrialisation between the 1960s and 1990s.
By the turn of 21st century, all four had developed into high income economies, especially in competitive advantage.
These and the migration of BRIC countries (Brazil, India, China) into the club of industrialised nations are often cited by Nigerian policy makers, past and present, as reason why the country should redouble efforts to develop education and manpower.
NERDC’s mandate
The NERDC has a mandate to create the enabling environment for educational research and development to thrive, and encourage collaboration with education partners.
Problems of education development
The Nigerian government and stakeholders have called for a review of the education curriculum to align with development aspirations. It has been argued at various fora that the current curriculum is no longer relevant in meeting national needs.
Ade Adeyinka, a professor of education, listed the problems in the educational system to include responsibility and control between the government and society, diversification, unstable curriculum and subjects, relating education to manpower needs, unstable teachers, neglect of manpower sector in the economy, equipment, poorly equipped libraries, scarcity and high cost of books.
“There are multiple systems of education in Nigeria. The states have their own systems different from that run at the federal level,” he explained.
Other problems include the rising number of out of school children, especially in the North, because of cultural hindrances or displacement caused by insurgency.
A private school operator, Fred Chiwuba, noted that “many problems litter our knowledge sector. In the North, religion is hindering modern knowledge, with Boko Haram rubbing salt on it.”
Adeyinka stressed that the effect of the distorted educational system Nigeria has pursued since independence has led to underdevelopment, as human capacity remains unharnessed, and the country finds it difficult to diversify its economy, grow productivity, and multiply wealth.
He added: “Underdevelopment is a constellation of circumstances, physical, social and political which contribute to the deprivation of the mind as well as the body.
“It involves the poverty that debilitates health, the ignorance and superstition which depress the human spirit, the conservation that resists change, the social privileges which inhibit the fruition and proper use of talents and skills.”
Tackling issues in the knowledge sector
The NERDC began a review of the primary and secondary school curriculum in 2011 to take effect from January 12, 2015 with the monitoring of the implementation of revised Basic Education Curriculum (BEC).
NERDC Director General, Godwin Obioma, said the purpose “is to verify if recommended training in the use of the teachers’ guide for implementing the revised curriculum is being adhered to in state and Federal Government Colleges.”
The monitoring team comprises research officers from the NERDC, federal Ministry of Education, officials from the office of senior assistant to the president on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Task Team, and officials of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The monitoring includes visits to state Ministries of Education and States Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBS).
Obioma disclosed that the next step towards ensuring implementation will include printing and dissemination of primaries four to six booklets of the curriculum, preparatory to take off in 2017.
It will also include capacity building of teachers until they are competent enough to implement the curriculum as intended, and the development of an e-curriculum resource portal for teachers and learners.
Highlights of basic curriculum reforms
The current BEC, which took effect from 2013, has 10 subjects, a reduction of 50 per cent from the previous one. Subjects such as information communication technology (ICT), entrepreneurial studies, natural medicine, and French are compulsory at junior and senior secondary.
Primaries one to three have a minimum seven or maximum of eight subjects – English, mathematics, one Nigerian language, basic science and technology, computer/ICT education, physical and health education, pre-vocational studies (agriculture, home economics, and entrepreneurship), religious knowledge, and value education, cultural and recreative arts, and Arabic (optional).
For primaries four to six, there are eight or nine subjects – English, mathematics, basic science and technology, pre-vocational studies (agriculture, home economics, and entrepreneurship), religious knowledge, culture and procreative arts, French and Arabic (optional).
The NERDC expected that every school ought have implemented this syllabus from 2013. There is also talk that another set of modified curriculum will be implemented by 2017 which emphasises practical technology in primary and secondary education.
An example is the development of an e-resource portal in all schools (e-portal).
Guardians’ concerns
There is general praise for the reinvigorated academic syllabus for children.
Nkechi Nkeiruka, a parents/teachers’ association (PTA) committee member of King Touch’s Nursery and Primary School in Ijesha, Lagos said: “It is right that ICT and basic science and technology has been made compulsory subjects.
“I believe that a majority of both public and private schools should have made provision for teaching computer studies. Before, most schools, especially those that did not have up to six classes did not bother to teach computer studies.
“But with effect from this year, every school, irrespective of the class number, is expected to teach basic computer knowledge. We should start somewhere. A child that has JSS (Junior Secondary School Certificate) without knowledge of basic computer cannot catch up in today’s world.”
Another parent, Pius Ukpong, who is also a school teacher, argued that “for effective implementation of modified school curriculum, parents and teachers need to work hand in hand in educational development.
“There should be effective PTA intervention in school management. The government should allow teachers to be involved in decision making and curriculum planning. There should also be availability of adequate textbooks for students.”
In the view of Gregory Nwachukwu, a guardian and businessman, “there are so many issues that are yet to be addressed in the education sector, especially at primary and secondary levels.
“There is still the issue of total acceptability of French as a compulsory subject. If they are saying that they are making a syllabus that will apply to Nigerian schools, what about the North, are you going to force them to study French?
“What about the issue of flogging students. Is it legal or not? Does not the teacher have a right to flog errant pupils? Are our children not supposed to be learning our laws and Constitution in secondary school, is it inbuilt in the civic education programme?
“At 17 or 18 years, our children are still ignorant of the simplest of laws, even their rights. Are the mission schools adapting to a national syllabus that imparts worthy national values beyond the creeds and codes of the missions and individuals that established them?
“Political structures in the country and the manner in which we relate to each other impact on the quality of education our children acquire, especially in these days of Boko Haram.
“So, the functionality of the education system in this country is still tied to our political structure and social make up. There are lots of hindrances.
“If you don’t have an equitable political and social structure, you may not have the best that modern education can offer in terms of being a catalyst for development. What you give is what you get. You cannot give what you don’t have.”
Achievements of NERDC
Between 2005 and 2013, the NERDC has
• Distributed the nine-year BEC to all public and private schools with the collaboration of the presidential office of MDGs.
• Developed teachers’ hand book for the implementation of BEC at Senior Secondary School (SSS) level.
Developed BEC for learners with special needs (the visually impaired and the deaf).
• Developed 3,000 sign languages for BEC implementation.
• Prepared teachers’ hand book for the development of instruction materials.
• Trained master trainers on the nine-year BEC.
• Developed curriculum for trades and entrepreneurship for out of school youths.
• Prepared teacher’s guide for basic science, basic technology, computer studies/ICT, basic science and technology, and business studies.
• Revised and upgraded SSS curriculum in all the 40 mainstream subjects.
• Printed and disseminated the new SSS curriculum structure.
• Developed curriculum for the 34 SSS trade/entrepreneurship subjects, the national values curriculum in conjunction with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC), and infusion of same into the SSS curriculum.
• Developed teachers’ guide for BEC in five subjects (English, mathematics, civic education, social studies, cultural and recreative arts), and teachers’ syllabuses for same.
The NERDC received inputs from the ICPC, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), Consumer Protection Council (CPC), and National Orientation Agency (NOA).
