Teachers Struggle, Turn To AI After Flawed Curriculum Launch

Six months after the Federal Government introduced a new curriculum, Nigerian schools are yet to receive teaching schemes to aid implementation.

Recall that the Federal Government announced September, last year, the introduction of a new curriculum across basic, junior and senior secondary, and technical education, aimed at reducing overload and enhancing quality learning outcomes.

The government had explained that the comprehensive review of the curriculum was done in collaboration with key stakeholders like the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and others.

But despite this, the curriculum, which was set to be adopted in the 2025/26 academic year, hasn’t been adopted yet due to the absence of a teaching scheme.

Teachers who spoke to THE WHISTLER said that after the announcement of the new curriculum, there was initial confusion on how it would be implemented; whether it would be for all classes or some.

NERDC later explained that the curriculum would be rolled out in phases, starting with Primary 1, Primary 4, and Junior Secondary School 1 (JSS 1), and progressively moving to subsequent class levels annually.

But even after the clarification, the teachers were in a fix because there was no scheme to handle the teaching of the classes that were supposed to start the new curriculum.

“ Each time we want to move to another session, we use to fill our scheme. The diaries contain the scheme of work against the next session. We already have what we are going to teach for the next session before they announce they have changed the curriculum.

“When we resumed, they didn’t give us the scheme. We can’t be doing abstract things. So we were later asked to continue with what we have on the ground until we have the new one in place. Our own is to implement. We are not the ones doing the policy,” a teacher in one of the Junior Secondary Schools in the FCT explained to the WHISTLER.

According to THE WHISTLER’s findings, NERDC’s roles include distributing the curriculum to the Education Resource Center (ERC). While the Center breaks the curriculum down into schemes for easy implementation.

However, this has not been carried out yet, according to a letter addressed to the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) FCT Chapter by the FCT Education Resource Center( FCT-ERC) and obtained by THE WHISTLER.

The letter dated February 9, 2026 and signed by the Center’s Director, Dr. Neemat Daud Abdulrahim, assured the principals that they will work on the scheme as soon as copies of the Curriculum were made available to them by NERDC.

“You may please recall that the Federal Government has directed that the new Curriculum should be implemented only in Primary |, Primary 4, and JSS1 and SSS1. However, the hard copies of the New Curriculum have not been made available for the FCT Education Resource Centre (FCT-ERC) to break into Teaching Schemes,” the letter read.

“Be assured that we shall prepare the Teaching Scheme as soon as copies are made available by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC),” it continued.

The letter further advised schools to continue using the teaching scheme of the old curriculum until further instructions were sent through the proper channels.

It also noted “the FCT-ERC and the West African Examination Council (WAEC) have confirmed that BECE, and SSCE will be based on the old Curriculum until in 2028 when the current JSS1 & SSSI examinations will be based on the New Curriculum.”

While this letter seemed to have quelled the new curriculum confusion, another memo arrived from the resource center weeks later, relaying the 2026 MOCK-SSCE Time Table, which raised more confusion.

And the confusion continues…

Speaking to THE WHISTLER on the issue, another teacher in a government senior secondary school explained that after the curriculum announcement, there was uncertainty in his school on the way forward.
“At first, we were thinking that it was going to be automatic. That even the current SS3 will take WAEC based on the new curriculum but WAEC came up with a clarification that it is going to be the current SS1 that will take examination according to the new curriculum in 2028,” the teacher noted.

But before the clarification came, the school had lost a term in the chaos, the teacher explained further.

“So it happened that when it comes to trade subjects, our strongest subjects are leatherworks, painting and decoration, and cosmetology. The students chose these three subjects when it comes to trade.

“Now, when they came up with a new curriculum, painting and decoration and leatherworks were no longer part of the trade subjects and so it meant that it was only cosmetology we had,” the teacher explained.

Trade subjects for non-technical schools in the new curriculum were streamlined from over 30 to six practical areas: Solar PV Installation and Maintenance, Fashion Design and Garment Making, Livestock Farming, Beauty and Cosmetology, Computer Hardware and GSM Repairs, and Horticulture and Crop Production.

The teacher added that the school was even more confused when it was time for registration for the WAEC for its students and the three trades were also missing in the Council’s portal.

“So we felt that what this now meant is that SS3 were supposed to abide by the new curriculum, because if they told us that the curriculum starts with the SS1, why then did they remove those three trade subjects from the portal?

“We now told the children that, look, maybe you have to now register for cosmetology, because the ones you have been taught, are no longer in the portal,” the teacher explained.
Even teachers were affected as the school had to reassign those handling the trade subjects to other subjects where there were shortages.
“We now started forcing all the children to now do cosmetology. So you can imagine, a child did not do cosmetology in SS1, didn’t do cosmetology in SS2 and now has to do it in SS3,” the teacher explained.

But then WAEC clarified that the current SS3 students would be examined based on the old curriculum, and the school breathed a sigh of relief. Though, the damage was already done – the students had lost a whole term without being taught those three trades.

However, the sigh of relief was short-lived as the school received the 2026 MOCK-SSCE Time Table from ERC, with the trade category following the new curriculum, leaving some schools in a bind.

“When you look at the timetable for the SS3 mock exams we are writing now – painting and decoration and leatherworks aren’t even listed. Why are they listing subjects from the new curriculum? You should’ve just listed ‘trade subjects’ so schools know what exams they have been preparing for,” the teacher lamented.

The teacher blamed the confusion emerging from the new curriculum to conflicting information coming from the education authorities.

“My agency is the Secondary Education Board, and ERC is a separate entity under the same mandate secretary. When ERC releases a memo, it’s supposed to be adapted by our board and then communicated to us, not sent directly. We’re not supposed to be left to figure things out on our own.

“The process is supposed to be: ERC sends the memo to our board, our board digests it, discusses with relevant parties like NERDC, and then sends clear instructions to us. That way, we all get the same message, and there’s no confusion. But that’s not what’s happening.

“It’s frustrating because if a school gets it wrong for a whole term, how do you fix that? The kids have already been taught something different, and it’s hard to retrace your steps,” the teacher lamented.

Ai Assisted Teaching Scheme

Worried that students were losing out on the subject they were supposed to learn due to the lack of a teaching scheme, the teacher had sought AI help to create a curriculum for SS1 in solar installation, including a teaching scheme for three terms.

“But I cannot go to the classroom and teach because of the practical aspect of it. So you need somebody who can practically show them that ‘this is the panel, this is how to connect it’,” the teacher said.

Now, schools aren’t just struggling with the lack of teaching schemes, but also instructors to teach the practical aspects of the trades.

“Students who wanted to learn a solar panel installation, couldn’t learn due to this issue. So everybody now is doing cosmetology or garment making, including the boys in the school,” the teacher noted.

The school not only had to abandon leatherwork, a trade subject the students loved, but also face angry parents who opposed their sons learning cosmetology and garment making, the only trade subjects the school is offering in the new curriculum.

Private Schools also affected

The private schools are also in a tough spot. Speaking to THE WHISTLER, the Principal of Patriots Education Center in Kubwa, Mr. Ben Madu, also complained about the lack of schemes to teach students, adding that teachers sometimes browse online or check other sources like AI for details on what to teach some subjects.

On trade subjects, he noted that the school is still searching for a instructors to teach the practical aspects, saying that some they have tried to engage couldn’t deliver.

“We wanted to get someone to teach the students, computer repairs but we noticed that these repairers around have the skills but do not know how teach the students. Those who can do it are busy in their workshops and can’t just leave to come teach. That’s the issue,” he said.
He noted, however, that coding and robotics have always been taught in the school, and they’ll continue with that until they find trainers to teach other trade subjects.

Now, with all the challenges surrounding the new curriculum, THE WHISTLER reached out to the Federal Ministry of Education for answers and was in turn directed to the NERDC but messages sent to the spokesperson, Tochukwu Eze were not responded to.

Teachers Struggle, Turn To AI After Flawed Curriculum Launch is first published on The Whistler Newspaper