The federal government’s abrupt introduction of a new national curriculum has stirred significant controversy within Nigeria’s education ecosystem.

While curriculum reforms are necessary to align with global standards, the hasty implementation leaves stakeholders scrambling for clarity and direction.

Stakeholders across the sector, including teachers, school administrators, parents, and publishers, are raising concerns over the lack of consultation, inadequate preparation, and the potential disruption to teaching and learning.

Hassan Bala, managing director/chief executive officer at Learn Africa Plc, a book publishing firm, in a chat with journalists disclosed that the best practice is for a curriculum to be introduced at least a year before it is been implemented so that it will allow time for all the various stakeholders to analyse, illuminate, and translate them into teaching and learning materials.

Bala expressed concerns that this is not the case in Nigeria’s newly introduced curriculum, which the Ministry of Education announced on Sunday, August 31, directing that it must commence in September with the 2025/26 academic session.

“We had a knee-jerk decision with the curriculum being introduced at the nick of the session, and that didn’t give us time to prepare or even have any content for it.

“It really threw in a lot of confusion within the publishing space because when you say something is for immediate implementation and there’s nothing to show, it becomes confusing,” he said.

He explained that because of the abrupt nature of the announcement, some schools even requested to return the books already supplied to them, thinking they could get any content that was relevant.

“So that confusion in itself had put a clog in the wheel of progress of our general operations, though the impact didn’t really hit us much, but generally it sent shockwaves within the ecosystem,” he noted.

Sunday Nwosu, a parent, expressed concerns that the government did not consider it necessary to engage stakeholders in a discussion before coming out with its announcement on curriculum change.

“The government did not imbibe the rule of corporate governance; those in authority are not working together with the stakeholders, making sure that they’re carrying the people along. So, the government is just doing whatever comes into their mind,” he said.

The new curriculum introduces compulsory digital literacy and basic entrepreneurship at the JSS level, while programming, artificial intelligence, and new languages feature prominently at the SSS level.

It aims to balance academic learning with real-world application to prepare students for future work.

Gift Osikoya, a teacher, emphasised that the immediate and sudden implementation of the curriculum creates confusion and would lead to uneven adoption, stressing that there should have been a phased plan in place, which would have allowed room for smoother and gradual transition.

“By this sudden and rushed approach, some schools will be compliant while others will lag, causing educational inequality,” she stressed.

Some stakeholders maintain that without putting some foundational elements in place, the curriculum’s goals are bound to fail, especially in rural areas and some private schools.

Isaiah Ogundele, an education administrator, said the major thing required to drive the new policy is the personnel and infrastructure.

“The need to train people according to the new curriculum and ensure they have good materials that would make the teaching and learning more effective and cost-effective,” he said.

For Jessica Osuere, chief executive officer at RubiesHub Educational Services, a lot of preparation should have been done to make the policy a success, beyond rhetoric, as the minister did on August 31.

“The minister’s announcement amounts to putting the cart before the horse. You don’t start implementation without a survey, definition of goals, and design of the goal, among others.

“We have had several reviews of the curriculum, but how well did we fare in that regard? Most of our schools are in a moribund state today,” she said.

Experts emphasised that, for instance, to drive the new curriculum demands teachers are retrained to handle the new subjects, especially those that require practical experiences.

For instance, subjects such as programming, artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity, and entrepreneurship require special skills that many of the teachers lack, hence the need for a retraining exercise.

According to UNESCO, every education system is only as good as the teachers who provide hands-on schooling.

Hence, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4) calls specifically for a major increase in the supply of qualified teachers, and more support from the international community for teacher training in developing countries.

“Introducing a new curriculum with the same old teachers is like putting new wine in an old bottle,” experts say.

It is high time those vested with the power to rule began to carry the people along in their policy formation and implementation. This way, everyone concerned will be on the same page with the government, and this will invariably reduce confusion and financial losses, as noticed in the introduction of the new curriculum. (Business Day)

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