Nigeria is in the early stages of a huge shift in secondary school education: for the first time ever, journalism, computer programming, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and fact-checking will be offered at schools across the nation. The Federal Government has announced that the new curriculum will officially take effect from the 2025/2026 academic session, beginning in September 2025
Why the Change?
The curriculum is part of a larger effort to gear young Nigerians into a rapidly-evolving, technology-driven global economy. By offering training in the formal education system in digital and enterprise skills, the government hopes to not only improve employability for young Nigerians and alleviate youth unemployment, but also strengthen Nigeria’s competitive position in the knowledge economy.
Officials explained that the new curriculum’s aim is to address a long-standing gap between what they call academic learning and real-life application. They expect graduates to have improved problem-solving skills, a sense of creativity, and critical thinking skills – all of which are essential in a digital and information age.
Focus on Junior Secondary School
For Junior Secondary School (JSS 1-3), the curriculum will be focused on providing foundational learning, while introducing relevant digital skills. The core subjects will remain Mathematics, English Language, Integrated Science, Social Studies, and Languages. The major change is the introduction of a new subject called Digital Literacy & Coding.
In this subject, it is planned for students to learn computer basics, research with the internet, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation organizational and graphic tools, among others. They will also learn to code, starting off on Scratch, and then going into Python basics. Work is being done on robotics kits to give students a more hands-on understanding of how machines and algorithms interact in combination with the hands-on knowledge and experience with these types of machines in the real world. The purpose of these kits is to engage students in STEM possibilities very early, as well as help to establish the digital confidence of all students.
Other learning areas like Creative Arts and Physical & Health Education have been adapted to reflect our modern reality with new content such as the basics of film, reproductive health, nutrition, and being aware of drug abuse.
Senior Secondary School
At the Senior Secondary School level (SSS 1-3) the changes will have an even wider impact. English & Communication will now also include some modules on journalism, fact-checking, and public speaking. Students will learn to identify misinformation and conduct interviews and demonstrate responsible communication, which can only become even more relevant in a world dominated by social media.
In Technology & Innovation, programming becomes much more advanced with tools like Python and Javascript and web technology with HTML and CSS. Students will take modules in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Data Science, and Cybersecurity. The purpose of all of these modules is NOT only to create future software engineers, but a generation of learners comfortable engaging with digital platforms, in whatever career field.
Sciences will be strengthened with biotechnology and environmental science. Social Sciences will mean a wider coverage of law, government, philosophy, and ethics related to social studies. Creative Arts will now cover media production – knowledge related to film technology and music. Of importance, every learner will also have a final-year research project in secondary school. The project is about collecting, analyzing and defending data, which will match the academic requirements of post-secondary education.
Responses and concerns
Educators, for the most part, looked favourably on the changes and said it is about time. Educators recognized that secondary schooling in Nigeria has been about rote learning for too long, and while the proposed new curriculum will establish a learning journey founded on problem-solving and creativity, teachers have treated the responses with some wariness about implementation. There are however many worried educators highlighting the increased pressure of doing an already demanding job without much to no support for training.
Others were apprehensive about whether they had the kinds of skills necessary to deliver more contemporary concepts such as artificial intelligence (AI), and cybersecurity. Although much of the parental community was in favour of the proposed reforms, they were similarly worried about the effort associated with whether public schools will actually have working computers and appropriate access to the internet, or whether teachers or schools will have access to enough robotics kits.
Concerns were also voiced by private school leaders about the extent of time needed to align student’s learning potential with notions of risk associated with uncertainty of how much updating their schools will need to comply with the new proposed curriculum extent, especially when they had invested in new textbooks and lesson plans to comply with the last curricular proposal. Concurrently, state education bodies are reporting mixed readiness for the new curricular proposal, with some states indicating that they will have regimes ready, and others updating the authorities requesting more time to re-engineer the necessary infrastructure for their teachers and schools.
Less subject overload
An important characteristic of the reform is decreased subject overload. In the past students in secondary schools reported juggling an experience with up to 17 subjects to learn. Students reported that with the stress of so much content, they could focus on concentrated learning.
The new curriculum dimension allows junior secondary school (JSSs) students to select from 12-14 subjects and their other senior secondary school (SSSs) counterparts can study up to 8-9 subjects. The reduced subject overload should support students to immerse themselves more completely in their learning, and they could stop repeating content in subjects that were unnecessarily duplicative.
The future
Nigeria’s proposed reformed curricular learning framework is similar to recent trajectories of countries such as India, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, who have included coding, digital literacy and entrepreneurial development into their national curricular directives, and it is rewarding that Nigeria is following suit to follow global trends in terms of developing its youth into responsible employees, either locally and/or globally.
Ultimately, the curriculum should be successful based on the assumption that it is all adopted and enacted. The vision is bold, yet without expenditure of time and investment in teacher training, change in infrastructure, and the possibility of lack of connectivity to the internet, good intentions will never result in execution. Educators have been advised that they will receive additional materials and training workshops to develop complementary capacity, but even now a mood is evident of a cautious optimism from many.
Conclusion
The inclusion of journalism, programming, artificial intelligence, robotics, and fact-checking into the Nigerian secondary school curriculum is an important turning point for education in the country. If it is properly implemented, it should provide millions of students with the skills to successfully navigate a digital future. In the grand scheme of things, it is anticipated to lay the foundations for another generation of critical thinkers, inventors and responsible global citizens who will positively contribute to the new digital frameworks.