School curricular must meet new demands – Educationist

School curriculum should be reviewed every so often to meet individual and societal needs, an educationist, Mr Inye Kemabonta, has said. Mr Kemabonta spoke as a guest speaker at a lecture on ‘The Challenges of Education in the 21st Century’ at the 9th graduation ceremony of Cherryfield College, Jikwoyi, Abuja, on Saturday. He said curriculum […]

School curriculum should be reviewed every so often to meet individual and societal needs, an educationist, Mr Inye Kemabonta, has said.

Mr Kemabonta spoke as a guest speaker at a lecture on ‘The Challenges of Education in the 21st Century’ at the 9th graduation ceremony of Cherryfield College, Jikwoyi, Abuja, on Saturday. He said curriculum must be realigned to meet new demands of the 21st Century.  He said the purpose, aims and objectives of curriculum must be relevant by reflecting societal aspirations.

He said: “In Nigeria, despite attempts at curriculum reviews, the curriculum for many levels of education are either outmoded or come short of global standard.”

He said the challenge for the Nigerian education system is to identify and interpret modern trends, develop and deliver a suitable curriculum to make graduates globally competitive.

“Jobs of the future will require a very high level of digital literacy and enterprise skills,” Kemabonta stated. 

He also noted that school achievement is adversely affected where salaries paid to teachers are low and advised that teachers should be paid higher than other public servants.  

In her remarks, the principal of the college, Mrs Olga Igbo, said 74 students sat for the 2017/18 WASSCE out of which “98.6% students had 7 credits and above, including in English Language and Mathematics. 

“Our students recorded 100% distinction or credit in English and 98.6% in Mathematics. In the same exam, 15 students had distinctions (A1-B3) all through. Bryan Nwana emerged the overall best in SSCE 2018 with a total of 6 A1. Three students had 5 A1 while 8 had 4 A1,” she said.