By Taiye Odewale Abuja
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, yesterday urged all stakeholders in the education sector to remain calm on the new 9-year Basic Education Curriculum to enable the National Assembly look into the various issues involved. Saraki, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Aff airs, Mohammed Isa, made the call while receiving a delegation of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), who paid him a courtesy visit.
He assured the delegation that the Senate Committee on Basic Education would investigate the complaints by the with a view to making it acceptable and satisfactory to all religions. Explaining the background to the introduction of the policy, the Senate President said the process began in 2010, when the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan came up with a series of reforms to reduce the number of subjects in the school curriculum.
“As leaders, we must continue to seek and fi nd solutions to problems. You will remember that in 2010, the past administration came up with reforms on how to reduce the number of subjects at the basic education level. “Th ere were about 20 subjects at that time, and subsequently they were reduced to 12. In the process of implementing that reforms, we have this problem. Why I am saying this, is so we don’t leave here and believe that it was done to favour one religion over the other. Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Prof. Charles Adeyinka Adisa, who represented the CAN National President, called for the intervention of the National Assembly to ensure genuine respect for the Constitution, as well as, “abolition of obnoxious laws that infringe on freedom of worship.
