Brighter days ahead! Basic-9 Subjects revised.

Brighter days ahead LC readers! I sincerely hope that this is carried through a detailed and committed process that will involve well-equipped and trained teachers in the effective delivery of the project. It is a brilliant plan which will eliminate repetitive contents in a variety of related subjects. I hope that the curriculum developers are working hard now to create these revised subjects. I especially like the addition of 'security education' in the face of security challenges in our country - I believe in the power of re-orientation.


This is the good news....

Culled from punchng.com

The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has announced that the implementation of the revised curriculum for basic education will commence in 2013.

Prof. Godswill Obioma, the Executive Secretary of the council said the agency decided to start the implementation after the conclusion of the review of the nine-year basic education curriculum. This reduction in subject’s listings, according to the NERDC boss, was achieved by grouping related disciplines.

He said, “Related UBE subjects curricula like Home Economics and Agriculture are brought together to create a new UBE subjects curriculum called Pre-Vocational Studies. Similarly, Islamic Studies, Christian Religious Studies, Social Studies, Civic Education and so forth that focus primarily on the inculcation of values (societal, moral, interpersonal) now form a new UBE subject called Religion and National Values”

“Key concepts in the former curricula now form integrating threads for organising the contents of the new subjects into a coherent whole. In the process of the review, particular efforts were made to eliminate content repetitions within and across subjects to further reduce the overload and encourage innovative teaching and learning techniques.”

He added that in line with the framework for reviewing the curriculum adopted at a national stakeholders’ forum on February 9 this year, pupils in primaries 1-3 are to offer a minimum of seven subjects and maximum of eight subjects. Pupils in primaries 4-6 are to take a minimum of eight subjects and maximum of nine subjects while JSS 1-3 students are to offer a minimum of nine subjects and a maximum of 10 subjects.

He explained that the unnecessary workload on pupils was one of the reasons for the reduction of subject listings at the basic education level from 20 to 10.

“A major outcome of the presidential summit on the state of education in Nigeria which held on 4th and 5th of October, 2010 was the need to reduce the curriculum offerings. For example, pupils in Kenya offer seven subjects; Tanzania, eight subjects; United States of America, six subjects; Malaysia and Indonesia, nine subjects each. Consequently, NERDC was mandated to revise the 9 – year BEC.”

The subjects listed in the new curriculum for primaries 1-3 are English Studies, Mathematics, one Nigerian Language, Basic Science and Technology (under which are also Physical and Health Education and Computer Studies/ICT), Pre-vocational Studies (comprising of Home Economics, Agriculture and Entrepreneurship), Religion and Values Education (made up of Social Studies, Civic Education and Security Education), Cultural and Creative Arts and Arabic Language (which is optional).

Way to go Naija!