The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has underscored the need to review the secondary education curriculum to create opportunities for students to acquire relevant trade and entrepreneurship skills.

NERDC executive secretary Ismail Junaidu stated this at a high-level policy committee meeting on the ‘New Secondary Education Curriculum Structure and Benchmark’ on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr Junaidu said the review became necessary considering that it had been 12 years since the current Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC) was introduced.

According to him, the old SSEC is no longer relevant to the overall objectives of education in terms of human capital development, job creation, value reorientation, and poverty eradication.

“The 2011 academic year witnessed the introduction of the current Senior Secondary Education Curriculum. “This came about after we conducted a thorough review of the school curricula starting at the primary school level.

“Additionally, there was a pressing need to achieve the Education for All (EFA), Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), and the homegrown National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS),” Mr Junaidu said.

He said the only way to effectively give the children the chance to develop new skills and competencies for thriving in the contemporary world was to give them the necessary learning opportunities through curriculum reform.

Education minister Tahir Maman, while commending the leadership of the council for the initiative, said the review was overdue, saying curriculum review was supposed to be done annually.

“This is certainly a very important event coming, especially at this time when we are doing so much in the area of reforms. To be sure that our students, the society and the country provide the best training and appropriate qualifications for pupils in the primary, secondary and quality graduates at the national level.

“This is a very important milestone, and I want to commend your agency for it,’’ Mr Maman said.

He also advised that all relevant stakeholders should be involved, saying when stakeholders are involved, things would not go wrong.

(NAN)