What God cannot do does not exist
Nigeria is finally reviewing its education curriculum after 14 years
Good morning, Big Brains. If you woke up not loving your job, that’s okay — you can job your love instead. That’s how I plan to survive this week. P.S., we’re not starting the NSPPD-fication of The Big Daily, we’re just celebrating with our dear country.
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- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1,200
Reading time ~ 7 mins
Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:
Nigeria is finally reviewing its education curriculum after 14 years
Goodluck Jonathan might contest again in 2027
The Big Deal
Nigeria is finally reviewing its education curriculum after 14 years
Apple has managed to release over 1,000 iOS updates in just 14 years. Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has been struggling to pull off one simple task: updating the curriculum for primary and secondary schools. But to the glory of God and shame of our village people, we finally have something to look forward to.
The Federal Government says it has completed a long-overdue review of the national curriculum for basic, senior secondary, and technical education. The new framework is supposed to reduce content overload, improve learning outcomes, and prepare Nigerian students with skills that matter in today’s world.
According to the Ministry of Education, the curriculum was reviewed in collaboration with key agencies like the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC).
If you’re wondering what the new curriculum would look like, here’s what we know so far: Primary 1–3 students will take 9 to 10 subjects, Primary 4–6 students will be mandated to take 10 to 12, Junior Secondary School students will take between 12 and 14, Senior Secondary School students will take 8 to 9, and Technical School students will take 9 to 11 subjects. The idea is to make sure that students’ brains aren’t being fried or burnt out.
The last secondary school curriculum review happened in 2011, and Nigerians have been waiting for a review since then.
In 2024, Professor Tahir Mamman, Nigeria’s Minister of Education, swore that a new curriculum would take effect in September. It’s been almost one year, and you can already guess how that ended.
But you know what they say — what God cannot do does not exist. We’ve broken away from that curse of delay.
Why is this a big deal?
This is one of the few ways the Minister of Education plans to make our education system align with global standards. And while it’s a welcome development, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has confirmed that the real problem starts and ends with money.
According to NUT President Audu Amba, without proper funding, schools will continue to offer piss poor services to students, no matter how fancy the curriculum looks on paper. Amba says the underfunding situation is so bad that “Teachers in public schools often have to buy their own materials, such as chalk, to carry out their duties.”
If you think Amba is exaggerating, you’re in for a surprise. In the 2025 budget, the government set aside ₦3.52 trillion for education. It sounds big until you do the maths and realise that’s just 7% of the total budget and not nearly enough to cover even the essentials.
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria says the country has about 2.3 million registered teachers across primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions.
With the current minimum wage of ₦70,000 a month, each teacher should earn at least ₦840,000 annually. Multiply that by 2.3 million teachers, and you get ₦1.93 trillion as the minimum needed to pay salaries alone.
Of the ₦3.52 trillion set aside for education, only ₦1.64 trillion is allocated for personnel costs. And that’s not just teachers, we’re talking about every other worker on the Ministry of Education payroll. That’s ₦290 billion short of what’s needed to pay teachers. If the first half of the budget isn’t enough to cover staff remuneration alone, imagine how small the remaining half is compared to the real cost of keeping schools running across the country.
While we’re not mad at the idea of a new curriculum, we’d also love to see the government address the root problem of the education system.
If you’ve ever had a Nigerian experience that shook your life and left you with regrets, Zikoko wants to give you a platform to share your story this month. Fill this form to get started. P.S.: You can absolutely choose to remain anonymous.
Goodluck Jonathan might contest again in 2027
When Kendrick Lamar said, “Sometimes you gotta pop out and show n***s,” we didn’t think Nigerian politicians would be taking notes aggressively. According to the cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, he might pop out with a campaign plan ahead of the coming presidential elections.
The former president denied reports claiming he abandoned his 2027 presidential ambition through his cousin, Azibaola Robert, who posted on Facebook that Jonathan has not closed off his political options.
While Jonathan hasn’t officially declared his intentions, he hasn’t ruled himself out either.
The Bauchi State governor and PDP Governors’ Forum chairman, Bala Mohammed, also gave Jonathan-stans hope when he confirmed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is considering Jonathan and Peter Obi as potential flagbearers for 2027. He described Jonathan as “one of the most celebrated politicians today” and hinted that Obi would also be given a shot if he returned from the Labour Party to the PDP.
We might not be able to confirm Jonathan’s intentions yet, but 2027 might just be the biggest political comeback season yet, and you should be prepared for it.
In case you missed it, pre-registration for voter cards has started, and we discussed how you can join the cool kids already preparing to vote here.
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