Nigeria must adjust existing curriculum to revamp educational sector

Repositioning Nigeria’s educational system to bring it back to standards requires a critical look at the existing curriculum and adjusting it. This was the submission of the Global President, Birch Freeman High School Old Boys Association (BIFOBA), Kingsley Iniobong Essien.

Essien made the declaration during the 2016 Homecoming Ball of the association held at the school auditorium in Surulere, Lagos, noting that the country needs an outstanding Minister of Education to achieve the feat.

said: “With dedication and determination, we should be able to fix our educational system and make it functional once again. We need a good Minister of Education that will look at the curriculum and adjust it. Nothing is impossible; it has to do with determination and devotion and we will just get it right.”

Essien, who was sworn in as Global President 2016/2018 of the association at the event, noted that Old Boys Associations have roles to play towards transforming the educational sector.

“Old Boys Associations must love their schools and support them. In every other school, they are strangers. It is only the school they left from that they can say this is my school. So, they must be proud of their school and associate with it. There is no reason to run away.

“Some people think that because they have not yet made it, other people would laugh at them but it is not so. You see the fingers are not equal. If you donate N20, 000 and I donate N5, 000 while another person donates N3, 000 collectively we have generated N28, 000. But if you stay away you would not have made your contribution. By the time the history is written it would cover everybody that contributed something and your name will not be there,” he said.

Essien said that BIFOBA has impacted greatly on the school since it came on board in 1999, noting: “What we met on ground was not presentable at all. This school you see here today was an abandoned place. So, it was a challenge to us and we said that we must make the school worthy of a pride. We started off and went up to the point of finding a land towards Epe where we wanted to relocate the school to. The school’s premises were waterlogged and nobody wanted to send his/her child to this place. But we decided to remain here and slowly and steadily we have been able to lift the school to an enviable position.

“Every good thing you see here BIFOBA has a hand in it. The school hall was built by BIFOBA singlehandedly. BIFOBA also attracted the classroom block that was built by the Lagos State government. As you can see, the government is constructing another block and it took our persuasion for them to embark on the project because what they will spend here is three times the amount they will spend in another school,” he said.

Essien added: “We get teachers that will augment where there is deficiency. We have just launched the basketball, volleyball and tennis courts. So, in terms of sporting, educational facilities and moral building we are assisting. So, we are molding the students in all facets of life.”

He pledged that his administration would stick to BIFOBA’s ideal, which according to him, “is to give to ourselves a school that would be the pride of everybody that has left it (the Old Boys) and to the students that are still here a centre of excellence. We want people to note that this school is meant for excellence because that is the legacy that those who were ahead of us left for us.”