ABUJA: The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has faulted the Federal Ministry of Education over what it described as a meaningless clarification on the revised Senior Secondary School Curriculum ahead of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
In a statement issued on Monday, the group said the Ministry’s December 6 press release failed to address widespread concerns raised by parents, teachers and students, particularly the directive that current Senior Secondary School 3 (SSS 3) students must register for subjects they have not been taught since SSS 1.
The ERC was reacting to assurances by the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, and the Minister of State for Education, Professor Sa’id Suwaiba Ahmad, who stated that there were no restrictions on subject selection within the approved curriculum.
According to the ministers, students are free to choose subjects across science, arts and social sciences, stressing that the revised curriculum is flexible and student-centred.
However, the rights group dismissed the explanation as evasive, warning that the implication is that thousands of students would now be forced to hurriedly select new subjects that are absent from the WAEC registration portal under the previous curriculum.
It is irrational to compel current SSS 3 students to take subjects they have never been taught since SSS 1 in the 2026 WAEC examination, the group said. This is exactly what the Ministry and WAEC are attempting to impose.
According to the ERC, several subjects previously taught from SSS 1 including Civic Education, Computer Studies, Tourism, Storekeeping and Insurance have been removed from the WAEC portal because they no longer exist in the revised curriculum. As a result, affected students are being compelled to replace them with unfamiliar subjects with barely four months to prepare.
The group cited examples showing that science students who previously offered Mathematics, English, Civic Education, Tourism, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics and Computer Studies must now select at least two entirely new subjects. It said business students would need to replace three missing subjects, while humanities students are also compelled to register for new courses to meet WAEC’s minimum requirement of eight subjects.
The ERC recalled that when the Ministry announced the curriculum review on September 3, 2025, it emphasized a transition period. This was later reinforced by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), which clarified that the revised curriculum would only apply at the start of each three-year cycle: Primary 1, Primary 4, JSS 1 and SSS 1.
This means the new curriculum should only inform WAEC examinations from 2028, when current SSS 1 student reach their final year, the group stated, describing the government’s current position as incomprehensible.
The organization commended the House of Representatives for its December 4, 2025, resolution directing the Ministry to halt plans to implement the revised curriculum for the 2026 WASSCE.
Lawmakers had warned that it was academically impossible for students to pick and adequately prepare for unstudied subjects with the examination barely four months away.
However, the ERC expressed disappointment that despite the resolution, the Ministry issued another statement on December 6 that, according to the group, failed to address the core issue.
The group also challenged the Ministry’s claim that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) had merely been renamed Digital Technology, insisting that ICT is not a WAEC subject in Nigeria.
It referenced a WAEC circular dated November 21, 2025, which stated that Digital Technology would not be examined until 2028 because it requires a new syllabus and curriculum development.
The ERC further questioned why Civic Education and Automobile Mechanics appeared in a Ministry publication on November 25 announcing online classes, if they were not to be examined in 2026.
Calling for accountability, the group urged the Ministry to put its act together and end what it described as avoidable confusion in the education sector.
While supporting efforts to reduce subject overload in the long term, the ERC insisted that implementing the revised curriculum for the 2026 WASSCE would unfairly disadvantage current SSS 3 students.
It reiterated its call for WAEC to postpone implementation until 2028, allowing the existing curriculum to remain in force through 2027 as originally planned.
