A news item appeared in the BusinessDay of January 3, 2018, which read: “Educational reforms: Edo Okays 300 schools for new skills-based curriculum.” The thought about skills-based curriculum is in the right direction especially that education of the right type represents one of the objects of highest importance to the welfare of any society. The initiative, according to the government is: “overhauling the basic education system by introducing technology to the primary schools, teaching Social Studies that will educate children on the ills of human trafficking and enhance the capacity of the teachers to be able to instruct the children by using modern technology tools.” No doubt, the initiative is laudable even though the use of ICT in schools at all levels should be taken for granted in this age that is ICT driven. Non-the-less, it is never too late to tread the right path.
As laudable as the initiative is, there are a few issues that should be of immediate concern. The choice of 300 schools for a pilot programme is considered overkill as the desired impact could be seriously compromised. This is against the background of the acute shortage of manpower and electricity especially as ICT will underscore the programme. The question is: how possible will it be to prepare teachers in 300 schools to undertake the initiate and also provide other supporting infrastructure? It would be more rewarding to have a few number of schools that could easily be managed in terms of all that is required to test run the programme. Except the decision to go ahead with the idea is exclusive and conclusive, I believe some adjustments might be necessary in the light of more illumination on the subject.
Besides the introduction of Technology and Social Studies, pupils, especially at the elementary school level, should be assisted to unlock their potentials early enough by identifying their intelligence. It is established that every individual possesses at least ten different bits of intelligence, out of which, according to Dr. Howard Garner, only two are in serious reckon- verbal and mathematical. These are measured and reported on all through primary to the University. One could be a genius in any of the other intelligence but are unwittingly ‘denied’ due to little or no emphasis. The other intelligence include: entrepreneurial (business), kinesthetic (sports), and musical, visio-spatial (arts and design), intuitive (ability to think and act rightly), abstract, intrapersonal as well as interpersonal. This intelligence are all important and none is superior to the other. For instance, there are a number of persons doing very well in the field of sports, especially in football. We revere footballers far more than we do Presidents of nations. With or without university degrees, they are ‘professors’ in their own field. The same is true of musicians and artists. I believe we pay more attention watching ‘home videos’ than we do in our various places of worship.
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We are well endowed in this country called Nigeria but almost every good initiative is in reverse gear. A number of persons appear to excel better in vices. This may not be taken place deliberately or consciously but due to lack of development of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. There is a large portfolio of persons who are verbally and mathematically intelligent but have uncontrollably failed in various areas of endeavour including business and matrimony. Many of those that are being airlifted from slavery in Libya and those drowning in the unkind waters of the Mediterranean Sea are well educated Nigerians who are lamentably illiterate in self-understanding at a deep level. Consequently, they lack self-restraint and are thus, ending up in the belly of whales and Sharks. The case of the Fulani herdsmen who have lost sense of manhood in the handling of AK 47 rifles derives from the absence of the development of interpersonal intelligence. These persons could have intelligence and capabilities that have not come to their knowledge and hence remained untapped. It is not too late to identify their specific areas of intelligence. At least anyone who thinks he could cross the Mediterranean Sea on ‘foot’ is very intelligent, though inversely.
The advocacy in this discussion is that a skill-based curriculum should go beyond the introduction of technology and social studies to identifying many other bits of intelligence that may not be very outwardly obvious. Each of the children has the potential to be a genius in specific areas of calling. The potentials are much more than they could use in their lifetime. Let’s train the teachers to be able to identify these inherent potentials in the children for the future we desire. The Edo State government has made the move and let it move all relevant stakeholders to action. The time to sit akimbo or on the fence is over.
Francis Iyoha
Professor Iyoha is of the Department of Accounting, Covenant University and Research Fellow, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He wrote viafoiyoha@ican.org.ng
