Religious studies curriculum: CAN RUBBISHES EDUCATION MINISTER'S CLAIM

The Christian Association of Nigeria
(CAN) has demanded for the details of new
education curriculum
CAN also said the new curriculum should
be suspended for now
They accused the minister of education,
Mallam Adamu Adamu of being economical
with the truth
The Christian Association Nigeria (CAN)
has called on the federal ministry of
education and the Nigerian Educational
Research and Development Council
(NERDC) to publish the full details of the
controversial new curriculum of
education if they have no hidden
agenda.
Speaking through its president, Dr
Samson Ayokunle, CAN alleged that
there is discrimination against Christian
students in the curriculum.
Part of the statement read: “ In this
curriculum, Islamic and Christian
Religious Studies will no longer be
studied in schools as subjects on their
own but as themes in a civic education.
“This undermines the sound moral
values that these two subjects had
imparted in the past to our children
which had made us to religiously and
ethnically co-exist without any tension.
“Islamic Religious Knowledge was
equally made available as a subject in
another section without any
corresponding availability of Christian
Religious Knowledge. Is this not a
divisive curriculum that can set the
nation on fire? Is this fair to millions of
Christians in this nation?”
CAN president, Reverend Samson Ayokunle says
Christian Religious Studies must be a subject on
its own
The CAN president
cited a case in Kwara state where a
student was punished for refusing to
register for Islamic Religious
Knowledge.
“A Christian student in a secondary
school in Kwara state had his body
lacerated with cane by the Arabic
teacher because the pupil refused to do
Islamic Religious Knowledge when
French teacher was not available and
Christian Religious Knowledge, Hebrew
or Greek were not part of the options at
all,” he said.
CAN also stated that its Delta state
chairman called to complain that
students are calling him to say that their
teachers are saying that they will no
longer be doing CRK as a subject again.
“As far as CAN is concerned, the
curriculum is a time-bomb, obnoxious,
divisive and ungodly and its
implementation must be stopped until all
the grey areas are addressed.
“If we are going to do pilgrimage
together as a nation, there must be fair
play, mutual respect for one another and
justice which can be brought about by
different arms of government. We
demand for justice from the government
on this matter very quickly.
“We request for a return to the
curriculum we were using before this
dangerous one which did not produce
insurgents or a wrongly indoctrinated
Nigerians.
“It was the students that came from a
school system where morning devotion
was removed that are behind the
insurgency and kidnappings that are
happening now and then.
“Those of us who passed through the
former system where we all did devotion
in the morning and in the afternoon at
closing in our schools lived together
peacefully irrespective of our religions.
“The government must stop the
operation of this new curriculum. It did
not come out of a forward looking
research but a backward one. A stitch in
time saves nine,” the CAN president
said.
CAN cautioned the federal government
against the use of propaganda in
addressing the issue because, according
to them, the unity of the country is at
stake.
They also expressed their
disappointment with the minister of
education, who had earlier said CAN
was believing a piece of misinformation
received from social media.
“To say the least, that is a misleading
statement from a minister who is not
only trying to Islamise the ministry with
all the appointments he has made but
denying the reality of discrimination
policy under his watch,” the statement
said.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu had said
the claims by CAN regarding the curriculum are
not true