Outline:
A New Curriculum, But at What Cost?
Earlier this month, the Federal Government of Nigeria introduced a revised national curriculum, set to take effect in the 2025/2026 academic session. The announcement was met with optimism, as it promised a reduction in subject overload, an emphasis on digital literacy, artificial intelligence (AI), vocational skills, and trade readiness. On the surface, this seems like a long-awaited modernization of Nigeria’s education system.
However, as someone who has spent nearly three decades working in education governance and child safeguarding—collaborating with organizations such as UNICEF, the British Council, SOS Children’s Villages, state governments, and various private and public schools—I must question whether this is truly an educational decision or simply a political maneuver.
The revised curriculum includes several positive elements: a more streamlined subject load to reduce student pressure, stronger practical and vocational subjects at the junior secondary level, including areas like fashion design and solar installation, and a new focus on digital literacy, programming, AI, and cybersecurity at the senior secondary level. These changes align with the demands of a global, innovation-driven world.
Yet, curriculum alone does not educate children. It is the combination of safety, structure, and well-functioning systems that create an effective learning environment. Unfortunately, the new curriculum appears to have been announced in a rush, without the necessary groundwork for meaningful educational transformation.
Seven Critical Gaps
There are several glaring issues that cannot be ignored:
Unrealistic Timeframe: The curriculum was announced just weeks before its implementation. Schools were given virtually no time to adjust timetables, source materials, or train teachers. Reforms of this scale require years of planning, not last-minute decisions driven by political agendas.
Infrastructure Deficit: Many government schools lack reliable ICT labs, safe vocational workshops, or even sufficient classrooms. Without significant investment in infrastructure, especially in rural areas, the new curriculum remains little more than a symbolic promise.
Exclusion of Children’s Voices: The Child Rights Act of 2003 guarantees children the right to participate in decisions that affect them. However, their voices were absent from the curriculum’s design. Were there consultations with students about the skills and protections they need?
Teacher Preparation Gap: Even the best curriculum will fail if teachers are not adequately trained. Where are the detailed plans for nationwide teacher training? Announcements of “capacity building” are insufficient. Educators deserve clear, structured training pathways.
Blindness to Out-of-School Children: UNESCO reports that over 20 million Nigerian children are out of school. How does this curriculum address their needs? Reforming what is taught inside classrooms is meaningless if a third of the population remains excluded.
Parental Exclusion: Parents play a crucial role in a child’s education. Yet, the rollout provides no structured support for families. There are no toolkits, guides, or forums to help parents assist with new subjects like coding or vocational tasks, or to reinforce digital safety at home.
Safeguarding Left Out: Perhaps the most alarming omission is the lack of child protection measures. With new trade subjects exposing children to external instructors and digital subjects putting them at risk online, safeguarding should be central to the curriculum. Instead, it is completely absent. A curriculum without safeguarding is like a car without brakes.
Structural Failures
These gaps are not minor oversights—they are structural failures. They suggest that the curriculum rollout is more political than educational, prioritizing announcements over preparation. Education requires careful planning, strong systems, and accountability. Without these, reforms will remain superficial.
For years, the government has played a haphazard role as both owner and regulator of schools. This has led to uneven standards, weak accountability, and a growing gap between policy and classroom reality. Unless this curriculum is grounded in a safeguarding-first approach, it risks becoming another example of political box-ticking.
Three Urgent Steps for Reform
Reform is still possible, but it requires honesty and courage. Here are three immediate actions that must be taken:
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Publish a National Rollout Framework: A transparent, dated plan detailing timelines for each subject, state by state, with clear milestones for training, materials, and infrastructure.
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Embed Child Safeguarding and Protection: Every new subject, particularly digital and vocational ones, must come with explicit safety protocols. This includes safer recruitment of instructors, online protection modules, and mandatory safeguarding training for all stakeholders.
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Engage Parents and Children: Provide parents with resources to support their children’s learning and digital safety. Involve students in shaping how the curriculum is taught and evaluated. Their participation is a right, not a courtesy.
A Call for Accountability
The gaps in this curriculum are too numerous to suggest any real commitment from the government. It is like a professor struggling with a simple math problem. Until these lapses are addressed, government actions will remain political gestures rather than genuine educational commitments.
Beyond policy, the primary responsibility of every school is to protect children. When children do not feel safe, learning and behavior suffer. Safety is not optional—it is foundational.
At LawGuard360®, our Science of School Safety programme emphasizes a culture–system synergy approach: culture, system, policy, processes, training, monitoring, and accountability, all anchored in safeguarding.
Nigeria’s children deserve more than empty promises. They deserve safety, dignity, and a curriculum that is not only modern but meaningful.
So, I return to my original question: is the new curriculum an educational decision or a political one?
The answer will be revealed not in government speeches but in the lived experiences of our children—in classrooms, in workshops, and in the digital spaces where they remain vulnerable due to adult neglect.
For now, the burden is on the government to prove that this is not just politics dressed as education. And the duty is on us to keep asking the critical questions.