BY DAYO ADESULU
BEGINNING from the next academic session the teaching of consumer education will commence in all the nation’s primary and junior secondary schools.

This disclosure was made by the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Professor Godswill Obioma in Lagos last week while addressing stakeholders at the workshop organized for the development of Consumer Education Curriculum. (CEC)

The Professor of Mathematics Education and Evaluation revealed that the introduction of the curriculum has become necessary in order to equip school children with the dictates of consumer protection, consumer rights and responsibilities as well as the obligations of service providers which will go a long way in ridding the nation of substandard products and poor quality service.

Obioma revealed that the curriculum is being developed in collaboration with the Consumer Protection Council, the apex consumer protection agency of the Federal Government which is charged with the responsibilities of providing speedy redress to consumers’ complaints, removing hazardous products from the market and undertaking activities that will lead to increased consumer awareness.

According to him, the three-day workshop was organized for experts in economics, commerce and other related subjects to plan by identifying the themes and the relevant topics under them and to write or develop the curriculum based on the themes and topics identified.

Essentially, the writing of the curriculum will be based on six themes, including consumer rights and responsibilities, business obligations, consumer laws and guidelines, consumer needs and wants, competition and market and consumer projects.

While the implementation of the curriculum will commence in primary and junior secondary schools nationwide from September next year, it is expected to commence in senior secondary schools from September 2015.

The development of the curriculum, however, does not imply that a new school subject will be introduced. Rather, the curriculum, according to the NERDC boss, will be infused into relevant subjects in primary and secondary schools in the country.

According to Obioma, the development of the curriculum will be in line with the format of the national curriculum, adding that the number of stakeholders presently involved in the exercise

will be expanded as the work progresses to the stages of generating teacher’s activities, listing of teaching and learning materials as well as generating evaluation guides.

His words: “The issue of getting teachers to teach the new curriculum will not be a problem. We already have many competent teachers in the areas of business education, commerce and economics.

We will produce teachers’ guide which will explain how the subject should be taught. We will also carry out sensitization and advocacy workshop on the consumer education curriculum nationwide.”

The Director of Curriculum Development Center, NERDC, Dr. Ismail Junaidu said the curriculum aims at increasing consumer awareness among young consumers in the nation’s school system, to use the students as informed agents who will disseminate consumer education to their families, communities and peers, and to prepare them as future responsible producers, manufacturers and service providers who have consumer rights at the center of their businesses.

The Director General of Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mrs Ify Umenyi also addressed stakeholders at the workshop.

She said that her council in 2006 introduced the Learning for Life programme which is meant to educate young consumers from their formative stage through adulthood in order to enable them imbibe the tenets of consumer protection and the best consumption culture all through life.

According to Umenyi, the implementation of the Learning for Life programme led to the formation by her council of consumer clubs in 10 pilot secondary schools in Abuja in 2006 which was expanded in 2008 to at least three states in each geo – political zone of the country, and subsequently extended to all the states of the Federation through the help of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), explaining that the number of consumer clubs has risen to 542 junior and senior secondary schools across the country.

She added that the immediate goal of the CPC in the implementation of the Learning for Life programme is the introduction of consumer education in primary and secondary schools curriculum in Nigeria, adding that her council plans also to establish consumer clubs in all schools in the country.

The Director General said that the infusion of consumer education curriculum into relevant school subjects will lead to the production of an army of highly knowledgeable and assertive consumers in the country.

Umenyi said: “No doubt, this will go a long way in sanitizing the marketplace as it will get business to be committed to improving standards for products and services, thereby gaining consumer confidence. Ultimately, this will enhance the welfare of our citizens and improve the growth of our economy”.