The Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) on Thursday, said the revised Nine-year Basic Education curriculum was not a replacement of the 6-3-3-4 education system.

Mrs Mildred Otu-Bassey, Head, NERDC South-West Zone, told newsmen that the clarification was necessary because of the misconception that the curriculum was designed to replace the 6-3-3-4 system.

In a statement made available to The Tide, Out-Bassey said though the new curriculum covers pupils from primary 1 to junior secondary school, it still operates within the confines of the 6-3-3-4 system.

“The revised Nine-Year Basic education curriculum does not mean pupils would spend nine years in primary school as being erroneously insinuated in some quarters.

“It is still 6-3-3-4 and not 9-3-4, pupils will spend the normal six years in primary school and three years in the junior secondary school. So, no system has changed”.

She continued, “the idea behind the revised curriculum is to give pupils functional basic education from the first year in the primary school to junior secondary III in line with today’s realities and needs”, she said.

The NERDC zonal head expressed regret that despite the approval by the National Council of Education (NCE) for the implementation of the curriculum in 2008, some schools were yet to comply.

Otu-Bassey, therefore urged administrators of private and public schools to ensure the implementation of the nine-year curriculum to fully realise its goal pf giving qualitative education to pupils.

She announced that the implementation of the revised senior secondary curriculum would commence as from 2011.

According to her, the commencement of the curriculum is delayed till 2011 to allow students undergoing the nine-year universal basic education curriculum to enter into senior secondary level.

Meanwhile, Mr Geoffery Chukwu, NERDC Head of Research, South West zone, has given assurance that subjects introduced in the new curriculum like civic education and Basic science and technology should pose no problems to the teachers.

Reacting to calls by stakeholders for special training of teachers on these new subjects, Chukwu said though the subjects were new, they were, however, carved out of existing subjects.

“I subscribe to the training of teachers because it will no doubt improve efficiency. But special training on the new subjects included in the revised curriculum should not be a big issue.”

“Teachers are already familiar with the subjects because they were carved out of existing subjects. Civic education is an aspect of social studies, while basic science is more or less integrated science. So they are not new in the real sense.”

Sogbeba Dokubo