BY DAYO ADESULU

Having realized that an excellent curriculum can only contribute to the development of any nation’s educational system if it is well implemented at the classroom level, the South – West Zonal office of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) recently trained Ekiti State teachers on the implementation of the new Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC).

The capacity building workshop which  took place at Olaoluwa Mushin Grammar School, Ado Ekiti turned out to be an eye opener for the teachers who, until the exercise, knew little or nothing about the new curriculum whose implementation commenced in SS1 nationwide in September last year.

According to the Director/Head of NERDC South-West Zonal Office, Dr. Moses Salau, who spoke on behalf of the Executive Secretary of the parastatal, Prof. Godswill Obioma, the two-day training programme was necessary to inform, educate, retool, update, equip and strengthen the capacity of teacher in the state because the structure of the new curriculum is different from the old one.

This new curriculum, according to him, provides for a systematic connection between basic education curriculum (BEC) contents and the learning of the future contents, and for 42 curricula (subjects) as well as 34 vocational trade/ entrepreneurship subjects.  He added that the curriculum is designed to equip secondary school students with functional education which will make them self- reliant on the completion of their education.

Dr. Salau said: “The SSCE is to ensure that every senior secondary school graduate is  well prepared for higher education, has acquired relevant functional trade/entrepreneurship skills needed for poverty eradication, job creation and wealth generation,  and in the process strengthen further the foundations for  ethical, moral and civic values acquired at the basic education level.

Apart from the capacity building workshop for teachers which is to be carried out annually in all the states of the federation, Salau disclosed that NERDC has also put in place other strategies to ensure an effective delivery of the curriculum.

These include the distribution of the curriculum to all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, reviewing and developing textbooks on all the approved subjects, regular assessment of educational books and reference materials and annual evaluation of the curriculum implementation process.

While assuring all stakeholders at the workshop of NERDC’s readiness to fulfill its own obligations, Salau urged Ekiti State government to recruit teachers who are academically and professionally competent and train or re-train adequate number of teachers who would implement the curriculum, adding that both the state Ministry of Education and the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) should replicate the training exercise in each of the Local Government Areas of the state in order to increase the number of trained teachers.

He explained that it is the responsibility of the state government to build and equip workshops for the vocational trade/entrepreneurship subjects which it closes out of the available 34 trade curricula, reiterating that the state government must also create an enabling environment for the teachers, who, in turn must seek all avenues to make them competent in the discharge of their job.