…Want 20m out-of-school children considered
…seek implementation of National Policy on Inclusive Education
By Adesina Wahab
Experts and stakeholders in the education sector have called on the federal government not to start the implementation of the new curriculum for primary and secondary schools in a hurry, saying doing so will create more problems instead of solving them.
The FG wants the implementation to start in the coming academic year which is starting in many parts of the country next Monday.
They spoke in a virtual meeting organised by the Concerned Parents and Educators Network, CPE, and the participants included educationists, teachers, administrators, school owners among others. The topic was “Understanding the new curriculum”.
This is just as they called for a gradual roll off of the implementation of the new curriculum and that the over 20 million out-of-school children, OSC, in the country should be considered for adoption and consideration in the new curriculum.
They called for pilot schemes in some parts of the country to test run the implementation of the curriculum before scaling it up.
In his presentation, Taiwo Akinwalemi, noted that the country is about 60 years behind in curriculum development, and that developing a new one that would be up to the demands of today’s world is necessary and welcome.
“The curriculum being used now is obsolete no doubt about that. However, introducing a new one and asking for its immediate implementation leaves a question to be asked. Is it an educational or political decision? This is because there are a lot of gap to fill. What about the infrastructure that are required and even the teachers that will handle some of the subjects.
” For instance, we have over 20 million out-of-school children, are they being considered too? Is every stakeholder involved in the preparations? As far as I am concerned, we did not have enough stakeholders buy in. Private school owners, who are a critical group, were they carried along? He asked.
In her presentation, a school administrator, Rhoda Odigboh, said the reforms gave chance to slow down and go deep because the work load has been reduced.
She stated,” Reforms are about implementation not adding or reducing the number of subjects. For instance now, we have a shortfall of 190,000 qualified teachers in public schools. Also, 60 percent of public school teachers are not computer literate. More than 30 percent of the nation’s population don’t have access to the Internet. The rate of Learning Poverty in the country is also high. How do we handle those issues?
” We struggle with process in this country and that always affects the outcome. Are our teachers trained for this? How do we fill the gap?. To me, we should not be in a hurry to start implementing this. We can do pilot scheme and assess the situation and gradually scale it up. We have to measure the outcome to know what works. We must also be transparent in the implementation,” she noted.
In his view, Dr Salisu Yahaya, a former Director in the Department of Education Quality Assurance, FCT Education Department, said a curriculum that would work must be made interesting to whoever encounters it.
Yahaya pointed at the the need to implement Inclusive Education Policy and cater to children with disabilities.
He also solicited for private school owners to generate input into the document.
Speaking on the way forward, Akinwalemi and Odigboh submitted that pilot scheme should be done first, as many areas need urgent attention.
They listed those areas to include provision of textbooks, training of teachers, involvement of the private sector, and that the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council, NERDC, should explain how the document would be implemented.
The Founder of CPE, Mrs Yinka Ogunde, said the group would not relent in bringing issue of national interest, especially those relating to education to the front burner.
When asked for his comment on the feasibility of implementing the document in the coming session, the Chairman, Lagos State Wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Comrade Akintoye Hassan, said since it is the policy of the government, it has to be implemented.
“A thousand miles journey begins with a single step. We are not expecting it to record 100 percent performance the moment it starts. Since it is agreed that it is going to be beneficial to our society, let us see how it goes. As we go in the implementation, we evaluate periodically and continue to fine-tune the process,” he told Vanguard.
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