Author Tasks FG on Nigerian Curriculum

Kehinde Lawal

The Director of Straitgate Nursery and Primary School, Magodo, Mr. Dapo Ojedeji has called on the federal government to ensure that the NERDC separate topics on entrepreneurship and leadership from Civic Education, as it is done in some parts of the world.

He regretted that more than 80 per cent of secondary schools in Nigeria do not have any programme on leadership apart from what the curriculum provides for in Citizenship or Civic Education.

Ojedeji who made this call, recently, at the launch of Leadership and Entrepreneurship series (LESs), in Lagos, designed to develop in every secondary school student an awareness of his or her leadership and entrepreneurship potentials, as well as assist them in building up of such essential qualities, expressed optimism about the approval of the book by the government.

He added that talks are on with the state and federal government to approve the book and ensure the change.

Ojedeji who is also a co-author of the LESs curriculum said aside assisting youths in building essential leadership skills and entrepreneurship qualities that will enable them act with integrity and high sense of responsibility in all aspects of their lives, it is also aimed making them citizens who possess the leadership abilities to meet present and future challenges in the emerging competitive global society.

On the uniqueness of the book, he said, “The curriculum treats the few leadership topics as an academic exercise which makes it ineffective. Leadership is built by daily practice and habits. This is addressed in the LESs solution.”

He argued that in many schools entrepreneurship is treated as just producing products and selling through an emotional captive market consisting of parents, noting, “ apart from the great work being done by some few organisations like Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), the present exposition of entrepreneurship at this level does not deal with passion, innovation, need identification, customer management, marketing, money management and people management.”

These are concepts and principles that LESs is designed to impart and build, Ojedeji added.

He affirmed that he has carried out a lot of research on leadership and entrepreneurship and sees that the country is far left behind by the whole world

“Leadership and entrepreneurship is something that you find in primary schools all over the world and I saw examples, I saw classes, videos and so many things, but what are we doing in this country is just teaching English and Mathematics, these things are not making any impact. The only thing it does is just for the students to come to class cram it and pour it down during exams and walk away.

“One thing I want this country to know is that we need leaders, we need entrepreneurs. The first lap in life is, you are working and doing things yourself, the second lap is to do things for people coming after you and if you have not done that, it means you have failed yourself, the community that brought you up and everybody.”

Ojedeji said most Nigerians students haven’t been told that they have something to do for their generation, and that so many things are missing in the world.

“ The country is just floating and that is why the youths are into drugs abuse while lacking entrepreneurial skills.”