FG denies removing CRK from secondary school curriculum

• Says CAN was deceived
• FEC ‘rejects’ blueprint on education reform

The Federal Government has denied reports that Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) has been removed as a subject of study from the curriculum of public secondary schools ‎in Nigeria.

Also, indication emerged yesterday that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) may have turned down a blueprint proposed by the Ministry of Education on education sector in the country.

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who spoke yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, described the reports as speculative.
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He said there was no iota of truth in the allegations, adding that the leadership of CAN was deceived by the media in the reports. “The issue of Christian Religious Knowledge that all the national media and social media took up, deceived even the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria because they believed it.

“I read in the papers that they asked the Acting President to confirm. There is no truth in it at all. It was just somebody’s imagination, probably somebody who wishes to raise tension in the country after the Biafra issue and then the quit order given to some young people in the North. The person just followed suit trying to stoke the embers of religion.

“There is no truth whatsoever, I repeat,” he said. Meanwhile, the Council may have, in rejecting the blueprint presented by the minister on revamping education in the country, opted for a retreat to have a holistic view of the problems bedeviling the sector and proffer solutions to them.

The minister said that the Council acknowledged the fallen standard of education in Nigeria and agreed on the seriousness of the development and the need for a ministerial retreat to look at all the issues bedeviling the sector.

He stated: “Initially, we had prepared a blueprint but FEC felt the issues is beyond that because there are crises in all the areas of education, out-of-school children, technical education and training, ICT and in all the areas you can think of. So, ministers are going to start talking to themselves and come out with solutions.

“There are a lot of issues. All of them are crying for attention. So, there will be a ministerial retreat in the next two weeks to look at the issues and from there, we will take off in what we are doing.”