Teachers Guide for the Revised 9-Year Basic Education Curriculum, Basic Science & Technology

Abstract

The 9*Year Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) was developed by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) in 2006, as directed by the National Council on Education (NCE) for the effective implementation of the Universal Basic Education Programme (UBE) in Nigeria. The major aim is to ensure that learners having successfully completed the 6 years of Primary Education and 3 years of Junior Secondary Education should have:

• acquired basic numeracy, literacy and life-long skills;

• acquired the basic skills in science, technology and IT;

• acquired the basic rudiments for creative thinking;

• developed the foundation for technical, vocational and entrepreneurship culture;

• imbibed high moral values and positive ethical standards.

The implementation of the 9-Year BEC commenced nation-wide, in September, 2008 ivith Primary 1 and JSS 1 classes respectively whilst the old curriculum was being systematically phased out in subsequent years.

In the course of the implementation of BEC, feedback suggests that the curriculum is

overloaded in terms of the number of subjects. There is also the issue of incorporating

emergent issues. Subsequently, the Presidential Summit on the Restoration of Education in Nigeria held in October, 2010, identified amongst others the issue of overload in the 9-Year BEC. Consequently, NERDC was directed to revise the 9-Year Basic Education Curriculum in line with the Presidential Task Team Report on Education, and also taking into cognizance international best practices and global competitiveness, without compromising the quality of the school curriculum.