The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, has advised Nigeria to tailor its academic curriculum to meet present day realities.
The UNESCO director of the International Bureau of Education (IBE), Ydo Yao, gave the advice at a capacity-building workshop for officials of the Ministry of Education in Abuja on Tuesday.
Yao said there was a need for action in making curriculum relevant to ensure quality in education and that values, knowledge and skills thrived.
He said unemployment rate keeps increaing because many Nigerians and Africans go to school, but have no jobs owing to the irrelevance of their training despite having qualifications.
He said; “You know, we used to say that curriculum is for education, while a constitution is for a democracy. It means the curriculum is the heart of education. So, when you talk about education, you are talking about content, programmes and learning.
“So, if you want to transform education, and you don’t transform what is at the core of it, which is the learning, content and the programmes, your transformation has no meaning.
“Whereas we have some areas that are not exploited at all, with big potential for job creation, we are continuing to teach people, and learners on areas that used to be very relevant in the past.
“Today they are no longer relevant but we are still continuing the same things for 40 years. So how are we rethinking our education to make sure what we are offering is really what is needed?
“These are questions that we need to ask and all these have to be part of a process of reforms that can be undertaken by people who are trained and who have the skills to do it”.