Education
ANCOPSS Explains Delay For New Curriculum
President, All Nigeria Co-Federation of Principals of Senior Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Hajia Binta Abdulrahaman, has said that lack of support infrastructure was delaying implementation of new senior secondary school curriculum.
The president said in Abuja on the sideline of a workshop organised for school administrators, that lack of manpower and training for teachers had also contributed to the problem.
“Secondary schools are finding it difficult to implement the new curriculum due to the challenges in manpower development and infrastructure to really learn the trade,” she said.
Abdulrahaman noted that very little progress had been made in implementation several months after the inauguration of the curriculum by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The ANCOPSS president said government must tackle the situation in order to ensure that the trade and entrepreneurship subjects embedded into the new curriculum structure, were implemented.
She explained that the new subjects were included to help students become self reliant, so as to tackle the increasing unemployment in the country.
She, however, noted that the existing number of teachers could not cope with the present work load.
The ANCOPSS boss emphasised the need for the teachers to be trained on the new trade and entrepreneurship subjects in the new curriculum to bring them up to date on the subjects.
“Federal Government needs to make provision for adequate training for teachers in senior secondary schools to help build students’ capacity.
“I’m calling on the federal government to help in the area of providing several workshops to help build the students up to be more acquainted with technological subjects to make them self reliant,’’ she said.
She also called on the students to avoid any form of distraction in their academic pursuit.
A professor of Highway Engineering at the Rivers State University (RSU), Prof. Emmanuel Osilemme Ekwulo, has identified poor designs, inadequate materials, insufficient testing, and lack of accountability as major obstacles to the success of highway construction projects in the country.
Ekwulo made this remark in Port Harcourt last Wednesday during the 128th inaugural lecture series of the university, where he presented a lecture titled “Removing Roadblocks: Rebuilding a Foundation for Reliable Highway Pavement Infrastructure.”
The university don lamented the consistent premature failures of road construction projects nationwide, despite huge investments by the government at all levels, attributing the problem to neglected basics and systemic principles in the industry.
According to him, rebuilding the foundation technically, institutionally, and ethically is crucial to building strong and lasting pavements.
Ekwulo emphasized the need for political will, professional integrity, and commitment to engineering excellence to overcome the challenges.
“The metaphoric roadblocks are those challenges causing premature failures,” Ekwulo said, adding that identifying and addressing these roadblocks is key to rebuilding the nation’s highways.
He recommended that institutions involved in road design and construction adopt a mechanistic-empirical design approach, and develop a comprehensive framework for implementing the Nigerian Imperial and Mechanistic Pavement Design System (NEMPADS) approach.
Ekwulo also advocated for mandatory traffic load analysis, strengthened university-industry collaboration, and funding for applied pavement research.
Corruption, he noted, is a major challenge in the profession, saying severe punitive measures are needed to curb shabby practices leading to premature road failures.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Isaac Zeb-Obipi, described Ekwulo’s lecture as interesting and intriguing, highlighting the importance of implementing solutions to Nigeria’s highway challenges.
The Vice Chancellor also described Ekwulo’s proposals as practical and applicable to government and industry stakeholders.
He said the university is committed to research aligned with national development goals, referencing its NDV-12 responsive consortium production framework.
Zeb-Obipi noted that Ekwulo’s recommendations are timely and solution-driven, and will contribute to addressing Nigeria’s highway challenges.
Akujobi Amadi
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