By Ignatius Okorocha
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has called on managers and administrators of education in the country to consider a review of the curricula in educational institutions at all levels.
Lawan made the suggestion on Monday while declaring open a public hearing on three bills seeking to establish three Federal educational institutions.
The institutions are: Federal College of Education, Mutun Biyu in Taraba State, Federal College of Education, Giwa in Kaduna State and Federal College of Education, Ibokun in Osun state.
The Public Hearing was organised by the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund.
The Senate President said Nigeria’s education curricula, are long overdue for a review to meet up with the demands of the 21st century.
“The time has come, actually we are late in reviewing our curricula to reflect our desire and need to produce manpower for a 21st century economy.
“At this time we cannot continue to use curricula developed 40 or 50 years ago and expect to have an economy that is knowledge based.
“We don’t have to have oil. There are so many countries that have no oil. But because they concentrated in developing their people educationally, and the right education, today, their economies are doing so well based largely on what their people can do.
“We go to India. We go to Malaysia. We go to Singapore. Even China. So we need to review our curricula at all levels if not, we will produce teachers that will teach students who will come and later become teachers,” Lawan said.
The Senate President said Nigeria needs teacher that are up to date in digital training because “you cannot continue to use the analogue system to just produce teachers who will go and write on the blackboard and that hardly say anything about an iPad functions.
“What that teacher can impart in students will be what he would have learnt from his teachers in the college of education and the teacher might have learnt something 40 years ago and therefore we will have serious challenge of developing and sustaining a 21st century economy.
“Recently we created a Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. That digital economy alone is enough to dominate our economy if we get it right.
“We need to have digital education permeating all strata of our education system,” Lawan said.
The Senate President said the public hearing was to listen to stakeholders on why the colleges should be in the locations proposed, why proximate institutions are not enough and how they will better serve nearby communities.
