Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) on Tuesday organised a critical stakeholders workshop for the validation of guidelines for the review of the Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC).
The executive secretary of NERDC, Prof. Ismail Junaidu said at the workshop that 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.
Junaidu said that times have changed, the world has advanced, new ideas have emerged, knowledge has progressed, new global goals have been set, new skills created and new technologies developed and the only way we can effectively respond to these changes and give our 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 reform.
According to him, “These changes call for the urgent need to create opportunities for students to acquire the relevant trade and entrepreneurship skills needed 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.
“It has been 12 years since the introduction of the current SSEC, so in order to ensure that the curriculum really reflects the needs and ambitions of all Nigerians, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council launched a number of programmes to intricately engage stakeholders.
”These specifically are the national stakeholders’ dialogue and nationwide needs assessment study that afforded us the opportunity to have in-depth conversations with teachers and school managers on important issues pertaining to the SSEC implementation”.
He added that NERDC has collated and harmonised the views, inputs and suggestions of stakeholders including students to come up with the guidelines and framework for the review of the SSEC.
