Mfonobong Inyang: My Thoughts on School Curriculum Changes

The revision of the national curriculum for basic, senior secondary and technical education is long overdue. I have always championed the need to recalibrate a system of learning that is no longer relevant for the world we’re living in. However, good intentions are not enough. I was one bad decision away from being an out-of-school statistic. Thankfully, my family placed a premium on education, so I understand how the trajectory of a person’s life can fundamentally shift owing to access or the lack thereof to learning. I may not exactly be an educational consultant or professor in practice, but I know a thing or two about design thinking. Ideas are nothing; execution is everything.

When I saw the announcement from the Ministry of Education on the 31st of August 2025 that the implementation of this revised national curriculum would begin with the 2025/2026 academic session, I was concerned. Yes, these are much-desired changes, but the good intention was not supported by the current infrastructure. These old systems have been in place for a while, so if there is not a well-thought-out strategy, what should be heralded as disruption could end up being destructive. For example, how extensive was the stakeholder engagement and is there credible evidence to support the fact that the current state of affairs can handle the weight of expectation? In project management, for huge deliverables, there is usually a pilot test. The idea could have been tested in selected but strategic demographics before a nationwide application.

We are all aware of the socio-economic inequalities that exist in the country; these disparities also extend to education. It kind of stands logic on its head to expect uniform or similar outcomes from places that are under-served, moderately served, or sufficiently served, respectively. In the trial phase, errors are less consequential because they are almost expected and the variables are controlled to a large extent. Innovation is always welcome, but implementation is a different kettle of fish; there has to be a granular understanding of what factors are necessary drivers of desired changes. You don’t need to be a tech bro or tech sis to be familiar with alpha, beta and gamma testing. When these changes are introduced in certain places without proper pacing or roll-out, they will create a shock to the system, and we will end up with thermometers instead of thermostats.

Content Strategy

It’s great that more practical and relevant subjects have been added to the coursework, but beyond the normative inclusion, the overarching goals for the curriculum must be reflected in the content itself. We live in a world where everything is weaponised. There are four core drivers of civilisation: politics, economics, religion and culture. Under culture, there are three major components: media, education and art, amongst other things. What do we want to achieve with education in a way that affects students beyond academics, to shape their thinking? For example, algebra is never about finding X – the subtext is the critical thinking and problem-solving abilities that it evokes because in the real world, nobody gives you any prize for solving for X. There is a reason parents insist on having their children study in certain institutions because a curriculum isn’t just information, it’s programming.

There has to be an applied perspective to the curriculum. For instance, artificial intelligence has very broad uses, which problems in the Nigerian space can we contextualise it for? We need to start developing local solutions to local problems. The revised curriculum includes data science and cybersecurity. We can use these subjects to tackle the ongoing issue in Nigeria regarding the lack of a unified and functional database for the population. This situation leads to the continuous reports of large funds being allocated to supposedly underserved Nigerians, despite the absence of a credible database. People are often required to register the same personal information with multiple agencies. Who knows, we may finally develop home-grown solutions to what has become an epidemic of ‘glitches’. I’m just saying.

Resources

Before this curriculum revision, funding for the education sector was already pathetic; what is the plan to fund these changes? By funding, I mean proper allocation in the budget. In addition to the poor funding, we also have a problem with misappropriation. More often than not, money is thrown at the problem instead of running diagnostics and following a needs-assessment approach. For example, most schools don’t need refurbishment of the physical buildings; they need to be equipped with resources like a conducive learning environment where students don’t sit on the ground to learn.

Teachers also need to be retrained or hired, as the case may be. Teachers will fail if they are not given the tools to deliver what is expected of them. Since education is on the concurrent legislative list, how well have state and federal representatives harmonised their respective responsibilities? What better way to celebrate Teacher’s Day this year than by also revising their remuneration upwards so that they can discharge their professional duties to the best of their abilities without many limitations in their personal lives.

Environments Are Also People and Processes

In a recent viral video, a group of boys who were supposed to be students in a boarding school were seen congregating in one of their dorm rooms, abusing substances and having the audacity to record their actions and post them online. In another video, a disturbed parent stormed the school her daughter was enrolled in when the child, who is barely five years old, came home with horrible marks on her body in what was clearly child abuse being presented as discipline. Changing the content of what is being taught without reviewing the places where the knowledge is being taught is like pouring water into a basket. It’s well documented that most students have struggled in school simply because of the personnel that was assigned to teach them.

Monitoring and Evaluation

How do we know that desired outcomes are congruent with actual outcomes? What does the reporting structure look like, and how much are internal and external stakeholders, such as parents, teachers, principals, host communities, district supervisors and education commissioners involved? Many things fall through the cracks most times because those involved don’t take ownership of the vision, which is why vision casting is important. For example, I was privileged to be a part of the pioneer team for some educational interventions like Code Lagos, designed to equip students with basic coding skills; Ready Set Work, designed to prepare undergraduates for the world of work; and Lagos Reads, designed to encourage a healthy reading culture.

For RSW, particularly, aside from the office work from Monday to Friday, I would take turns every Saturday at different institutions where different resource persons would deliver learning on the custom curriculum. Then on Sundays, we elected to have evaluation meetings at the Public Library in Yaba, Lagos. The idea was to get critical feedback and ensure quality control; working seven days a week was just a small price to pay. So this is not armchair quarterbacking; I have skin in the game.

Great Policies Are People-Centric

The ultimate KPI is the improvement of learning outcomes for the students; everything else is secondary. This revision presents an opportunity to repurpose education for a new generation if managed properly. The human development index is a measure used to assess a country’s average achievements in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. Great countries strive to raise HDI, not just IGR. We’re already the country with the highest out-of-school children in the world, so investment in education at this point should be a matter of national security because if we continue on this trajectory, it’s a breeding ground for the undesirable. I’m passionate about development economics, amongst other things, because I’m fascinated by how policies can be used to engineer societies. I’m rooting for this. I hope it doesn’t flop.