By Aare Afe Babalola

THE first problem that I identify with each curriculum taught in Nigerian schools today at all levels is that they are largely outdated. While there have been several attempts at curriculum reforms at all levels, none of these have been successful in lifting the education fortunes of the country.

While it was desirable to reform the colonial curriculum as the country progressed, the ones that replaced them have not been as successful as that of the colonial system partly because they were not designed to be in touch with current realities of the Nigerian society. 

For example, while Nigeria needs graduates who are self-reliant and who can take initiatives in globally competitive crafts and inventions, what we have is a situation where graduates from primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the country graduate without having an iota of idea on how what they learnt in school will apply in practical life. Unfortunately, the reality is that in most cases, they are not applicable.

The desire for change in the educational curriculum is not primarily a function of how old the curriculum has lasted, but how fast the society and its needs are changing especially in response to the matrix of internal and global competitiveness. In this information age the world is changing faster than ever before. 

While all aspects of a curriculum do not change at the same pace and at the same time, the aspects that change are usually so significant that only a constant review of the curriculum can guarantee functional education of the students. In many countries, general curriculum review takes place every five years while individual changes may take place as a result of new research breakthrough or major economic, political or social changes but not in Nigeria. 

A careful examination of the educational curriculum in Nigeria at all levels will reveal that much emphasis is still placed on the doctrinal and philosophical bases of the subjects studied by the students. There is very little or no emphasis on application skills that ensure that what a student learns remain relevant in his life after school. 

It is not enough to have a curriculum that is in touch with developmental realities of a country or even the global world. 

A fundamental issue here is that the curriculum must contain practical skills that guarantee self-reliance by those who studied subjects. 

Educational institutions all over the world are shifting from delivery of doctrinal curriculum to a balanced delivery of doctrines and skills, with more emphasis on those cross-disciplinary skills that will still be relevant in life whether a person practices the trade he learnt in school or not. But this is still not the case in Nigeria. 

Here, academic discourses are seen as classroom discourses while the graduate is left on his own to figure out how best to make use of the information he learnt in school. In an article published in one of the editions of Business Day Newspaper, the author lamented so badly about how, on two different occasions, two professors consulted by his company as experts in their fields could not deliver on the jobs and returned several millions of Naira they had been paid after about six months of doing nothing. 

It dawned on the company that the professors were merely academic experts who contented themselves with the doctrinal issues on the subjects they claimed expertise in and published several papers without knowing anything about how they will apply it in practice. How then can these professors produce relevant graduates who are employable after graduation? This is not the case in countries that have functional education systems.

Lack of impact on industries

The high cost of doing business in Nigeria and the near-comatose state of infrastructure in the country also negatively impacts on the curriculum taught in Nigeria’s educational institutions. 

Nigeria is a highly consumerist nation and the few industries in the country seem to have lost confidence in the products of Nigeria’s educational systems and would rather prefer products from foreign institutions. 

In countries where things work, curriculum designs and reviews are carried out based on current or future industry needs. 

When companies encounter serious challenges in their mode of doing businesses, they refer them to education and research institutions who in turn design curriculums that can help in tackling those problems, devise new ways of doing things or pursue new research breakthroughs that will improve quality of lives and enhance competitiveness in the industries. 

This is why companies fund research initiatives and grant scholarships in their areas of interest in developed countries. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Nigeria. 

Even the few multinational corporations that award scholarships to Nigerian students do so as a matter of community service or corporate social responsibility and not because they are expecting any meaningful return from their investments. 

Before there can be functional curriculum in Nigeria’s educational system, this broken synergy between the institutions and the industries must be fixed.

*Please send your comments and suggestions to my email: president@abuad.edu.ng.