The call by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on the Federal Ministry of Education and the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to publish the full details of the controversial new Curriculum of Education is in order and should be heeded by the two bodies to rest the unending controversy on this matter. CAN President, Rev. (Dr.) Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, in a recent statement, reiterated the disagreement of the association with the new curriculum, which he insisted merged Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) and Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) with Civic Education. This arrangement, he said, portends danger ahead.
Ayokunle’s argument is that in the new curriculum, CRK and IRK will no longer be studied as individual subjects in schools but as themes under a subject known as Civic Education. The CAN leadership claimed that this will undermine the sound moral values that the two religious subjects imparted in students in the past, which made them to co-exist peacefully with other Nigerians without any tension. The association also asked if the new curriculum was not divisive, incendiary and unfair to the millions of Christians in the country.
The Federal Ministry of Education has, however, denied the CAN allegation that CRK was removed as a subject from the secondary school curriculum. The Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Chinyere Ihuoma, said the ministry had only designed a new subject, which merged Civic Education, IRK, CRK, and Social Studies into Religion and National Values.
Ihuoma was further quoted as saying that the alteration is not from the minister, but the National Council on Education. She explained that the new subject called Religion and National Values is a fusion of religion and civics, stressing that Arabic and Islamic Studies are not standing alone. She also pointed out that Islamic Religious Studies and Christian Religious Studies as National Values will be taught under a new subject.
These convoluting explanations from the Ministry of Education are an unnecessary obfuscation of the issues in question. CRK and IRK have always been separate subjects in the Nigerian secondary school curriculum and should remain so. Any attempt to merge them into a subject named as Religion and National Values, or by whatever name it is called, smacks of mischief designed to achieve ulterior objectives.
The latest explanation by the Executive Secretary of NERDC, Prof. Ismail Junaidu, that CRK is still taught in schools as a separate and distinct subject with the accompanying Teachers’ Guide is contrary to the explanation of the Director of Press in the education ministry. In an advertorial in some national dailies, NERDC averred that the subject offerings (Civic Education, Social Studies, Christian Religious Knowledge, Islamic Religious Studies and Security Education) under the Religion and National Values Curriculum, are distinct as listed, and taught separately on the time table.
This clearly flies in the face of Mrs. Ihuoma’s explanation that CRK and IRK are themes under the subject identified as Religion and National Values. The agency, however, further stated that in this curriculum, no child would be coerced or compelled to learn or be taught in school any religious studies subject but only one (out of the two) that restrictively relates to the belief system professed by the child and his/her parents. NERDC added that teachers had been trained in the six geo-political zones to be able to teach these distinct subjects. They are well aware of the mode of teaching the Religion and National Values Curriculum as distinct subjects on the time table.
We advise the Ministry of Education and the NERDC to urgently harmonise their positions on this matter and put whatever they agree on in the public domain. They need to tell the nation in one voice if Religion and National Values is a subject, which has CRK and IRK as themes, as Ihuoma said, or an umbrella name for a group of distinct subjects, which includes CRK and IRK, as the NERDC proffered. And, the best way in which they can clear this confusion is to publish, verbatim, for the benefit of all Nigerians, what the new curriculum actually provides for.
The education authorities should either do this to clear the air on this matter, or continue using the old curriculum which has CRK and IRK as different subjects. That aspect of the curriculum has served the nation well enough with regard to the teaching of CRK and IRK. We should not court trouble with needless tinkering with it. Insisting that it is not crying wolf where none exists, CAN has cautioned the Federal Government against the use of propaganda in addressing this sensitive issue because the unity of the country is at stake.
Making the entire document of the new curriculum public is the best way to settle this controversy. We do not think the ministry should have any problem with this because school curriculum development, ordinarily, should carry all critical stakeholders along. It should not be a secret affair. On subjects relating to religion, we believe that CAN and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA) should have been carried along. When the review of the school curriculum involves the very sensitive issue of religion, it is necessary for great care to be taken to clear all doubts. Full disclosure of this curriculum will lay this matter to rest once and for all.