Our grouse with revised curriculum, by teachers

•Pupils of Queen’s College Lagos in the computer classroom. Courtesy Google

Teachers agree that the revision of the Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC) was done with the best of intentions, but they are worried by its implementation. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA reports.

What is in a curriculum, some are wont to ask? Plenty, say principals of secondary schools, who rose from a meeting in Lagos last week, seeking a modification of the revised Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC). They believe that the curriculum cannot be implanted as it is. Reason: the demands of the curriculum cannot be met by the realities on ground. 

While hailing the National Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) for the revised SSEC, the All Nigeria Confideration of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) said as laudable as the revision is, it is fraught with danger. ANCOPSS' National Executive Council (NEC) met in Lagos to examine the issue under the theme: "The New SSEC: Application and Challenges to School Administrator."  

Schools began using the curriculum during the 2010/2011 academic session, with the first set of pupils that passed through nine years of basic education (six years of primary and three years of junior secondary education) introduced by the former President Obasanjo administration on September 30, 1999. 

The aim of the curriculum is to make pupils well-rounded in learning and character, and designed to make secondary school leavers self-reliant upon graduation. The curriculum reduces in the number of subjects offered at each of the basic education levels from 22 to between 11 and 14. It also emphasises experiential learning, and introduction of vocational subjects into primary school curriculum. It is expected that collaboration during schools, the organised private sector, craftsmen and artisans in the local industry, would provide workplace experience for pupils through the much desired traditional education tool of 'learning by doing', and schooling beyond participant-observation. The curriculum has five cross-cutting core subjects, English Studies General Mathematics, Entrepreneurial Trade subject, Computer Studies, and Civic Education. It also has four distinct fields of study as Senior Secondary Education Science, Humanities, Technology and Business with 34 Entrepreneurial Trades to provide required skills for job creation and poverty eradication. 

Some of the trade subjects are: GSM Technology, Book keeping, Clothing and Textile, Woodwork, Building Construction, Auto mechanics, Technical Drawing, Home Management, Food and Nutrition, Typewriting and Shorthand. Others are: Carpentry, Basic Electronics, Applied Electricity, Agricultural Science, Principles of Accounts, and Commerce. 

Teachers fear that the demands of the curriculum do not reflect the situation in most states.

A delegate from Taraba, who pleaded not to be named, said apart from inadequate facilities, the state lacks teachers especially in core subjects.

He said: "There is lack of personnel in most of the schools in Taraba. "In most schools, we don't have teachers in English and Maths. We only make do with corps members posted to serve in the state, but there is no continuity since they usually come and go. Yet our students are expected to write the same external exams with their counterparts in other states that have permanent teachers."

He said they improvise by "going out to private schools where we pay the teachers some kind of part-time money to teach the pupils. But it's not helping much; what we need are permanent teachers.

"I put the blame on (state) government. In those days, teachers of English and Maths are paid certain subject allowances which ginger would-be teachers to go into those fields. But now, the state has scrapped it, and so people no longer wish to go for those tasking subjects again. They prefer subjects that are comfortable." 

A teacher in a public school in Lagos said to implement the new curriculum, some teachers now teach trade subjects related to their subject areas.  

She said: "We have started implementing.  What they did in my school was to go into teachers records to check their background.  For instance, Social Studies teachers can teach Civic Education; an Economics teacher can teach Commerce; while Home Economics teacher can teach Home Management, food and nutrition.   This new curriculum is going to give problems.  The combination is even weird that we keep going back to check it for clarity." 

Principal of FESTAC Senior College in Lagos, Mr Abayomi Adegunle said the school only picked five of the 34 entrepreneurial trade subjects.

He said: "We use teachers with relative subjects for the vocational subjects. For instance, My Commerce teacher now combines it with Insurance; Account teacher takes Book Keeping; while Civic Education is handled by the Government teacher. We also sent the Physics teacher for a successful training in Computer and he will now combine an additional 12 periods to the 12 he already has for Physics."

Mr Kareem Olanrewaju of Rockville College in Ojo, Lagos, said the curriculum is being implemented skeletally.

"We hope to commence its full implementation when the children resume in the new session. For now, we have collapsed some of those vocational subjects under Creative Arts. For instance, the Intro Tech. teacher now combines welding and carpentry, and electronics and all that. We are only managing the resources at our disposal," he said.

ANCOPSS chair for Kaduna State Kassim Inuha Zom told The Nation that the association organised a sensitisation workshop for about 250 teachers on the new curriculum.  The training, he said would be ineffective without the tools teachers need to work, especially those in rural areas.

He said: "The scenario is an eyesore here. There are inadequate computers in the schools, and ICT (Information and Communication Technology), according to the new curriculum, should be a compulsory subject. The situation is a bit better in Zaria because we still have few computers in some schools. But outside Zaria and in the hinterlands, the situation is so bad."

Another challenge of the curriculum is the stipulation that artisans be invited to provide practical training in various trades.  Zom thinks this may be problematic because many of such unskilled workers are not literate.

"The new system also stipulates that we buy machines and employ artisans; people that we don't have on ground to teach the children. The problem is that how do we do these things. I personally forsee a problem in future because the artisans are generally not educated people and our children will be writing exams created for educated people. Teachers are willing to adapt to the new curriculum but these are the constraints," he said.

Former ANCOPSS National President Chief Adeniyi Falade said there must be a system in place to support the involvement of artisans in the school system.  

"What are the efforts made in that regard to bring in artisans?  It is not school administrators that should bring in the teachers.  It has to be regulated, it has to be formalised.  At least in every state, there is a board for technical education.  They should be responsible for coming up with the modalities of how the artisans will be brought into the schools," he said.

Falade is worried that if things continue this way it will be difficult to examine pupils in the subjects when they sit for the Senior School Certificate Examination in 2014.

He said: "Like other policies before this curriculum, implementation has always been our problem giving the impression that our leaders are not interested in providing quality education.

"For the traditional subjects like English, Physics Chemistry and Biology, the teachers are not there.  You now have teachers under the trade section - fisheries, hair dressing, how do you get the teachers for it?  A year has already gone and these children are supposed to write exam based on the curriculum in 2014.  My school is a typical public secondary school.  The problems we are grappling with - lack of funds; we don't have teachers in the right quality or quantity, the children are not ready to learn and parents are not really parenting."

Except there is urgent intervention in Bayelsa overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated facilities will hamper implementation of the curriculum, according to the state's ANCOPSS secretary, Francis Obong.  He said education has suffered such devastating blow in the past that the administration of Governor Seriake Dickson has declared a state of emergency in the sector.

Hear him: "A new government has just come on board, and we want to give it the benefit of the doubt because it has declared a state of emergency in education. Before the new government, we had the challenges of infrastructure and dilapidated houses.

"For instance, in DGSS Akemfa, a school where I presently serve as the principal, the population is about 800 pupils; but we have just six blocks of classrooms. Each classroom houses between 120 and 150 as against the 30-35 pupils recommended per class. How do you think the new curriculum will work? Aside, manpower is not there, and there is no incentive for teachers. So, we are not even talking about computers now. Dilapidated structures need to be given a facelift and teachers' welfare package improved before we start talking about ICT."

In Rivers State, where the government has done well in rehabilitating and equipping schools, ANCOPSS President (Southsouth) Dr Augusta Fubara said teachers still need to be encouraged.

"In all fairness, the government of Rivers State is trying to meet the challenge of the curriculum.  But we are still telling them (government) to do more. Teachers are ready to work if government encourages us with provision of tools and conducive atmosphere," he said.

ANCOPSS is seeking inclusion in the drafting of the curriculum in future and increased sensitisation and capacity building to help teachers implement the curriculum. But NERDC Executive Secretary Prof Godswill Obioma said the agency cannot be faulted as it prepared the curriculum three years ahead of its implementation and informed the states and other relevant stakeholders.

He said: "The SSS curriculum which started last year was approved by the National Council for Education (NCE) in December 2008. The idea behind its advance approval was to enable state governments put in facilities and structures ahead of its implementation. So let the principals channel their grievances to their respective state governments." 

On the claim of non-inclusion of ANCOPSS in the drafting of the curriculum, Obioma said qualified professionals were involved.

"The SSS curriculum was drafted by experienced secondary school teachers both public and private and university lecturers. We don't invite unions or institutions but qualified personnel nominated by their state governments. We have all the names and addresses of those invited in the drafting," he said.

Critical to the implementation of the curriculum, especially the ICT subject is the availability of electricity to power the computers.

To correct this, National ANCOPSS President, Hajia Fatima Abdulrahman has appealed to the Federal Government and other stakeholders to intervene as inadequate power supply would make it difficult to   implement the ICT and other vocations that may require electricity to function appropriately.

"We know the challenges of power. We hope government does something especially in schools in the hinterland. We are equally calling on non-governmental organisations and well-meaning individuals to assist us in this cause", she said.