•Decries fallen standard in education
Stories from Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Federal Government has said Christian religious knowledge (CRK) is still being taught in schools contrary to reports that it has been scrapped.
In fact, it declared that CRK is compulsory for all Christian students and Islamic Religious Studies (IRK) compulsory for their Muslim counterparts.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who addressed journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, yesterday, said those who wanted to destabilise the country were behind the claims that the subject had been removed from the school curriculum.
He explained that the last review of the curriculum was approved in 2013 and implementation commenced in September 2014, and in both instances, neither the CRK or IRK was removed.
“I will like to also address one issue which I will also throw back at you, journalists, especially those of you on social media. The issue of Christian Religious Knowledge that all the national media, social media took up and deceived even the leadership of the Christian
Association of Nigeria because they believed it.
“I read in the papers that they asked the acting president to confirm if the report that CRK had been removed from the curriculum is true.
“There is no truth in that at all. It was just somebody’s imagination, probably somebody who wanted to raise tension in the country after the Biafra issue and then the quit order given by some young people in the north. So, the person just followed suit trying to stoke the embers of religion. There is no truth whatsoever in that. I repeat, no truth in it.
“Certainly, there was a policy in 2012 which was given effect in 2014, that is even before this government came in. One of the things I did, as minister was to speak to the National Council on Education to disarticulate history from the social studies curricula because we believe we want our young people to know our history.
“You cannot know who you are without knowing who your ancestors were in the past. And the National Council of Education did accept and agreed that the teaching and learning of CRK has been made compulsory for all Christian students and teaching and learning of Islamic studies is compulsory for all Muslim students.
“So, you are actually accusing the ministry of the opposite of what it has done. I think I just need to tell you, even if you are not the ones in the social media, they must be your compatriots, please tell them to be more responsible in handling the issues especially at this time in history,” he admonished.
Adamu said FEC discussed only a single item on the agenda- the roadmap on education sector and developments.
According to him, council members agreed unanimously that education had fallen and there was a need for a ministerial retreat to urgently address the issues militating against the sector.
“Initially, we had prepared a blueprint, but FEC felt the issues are beyond that, because, there are crises in all the areas of education, in out of school children, in technical education and training, in ICT, in all the areas you can think of. So, ministers are going to start talking to themselves and come out with solutions,” Adamu said.