The Federal Ministry of Education in conjunction with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), is working on reducing the workload of primary and junior secondary pupils from 20 to a maximum of ten subjects under the nine-year basic educational curriculum in order to align with global best practices, taking in account local needs.      

This followed a revision of the previous curriculum by NERDC with the aim of reducing the number of subjects offered.

Under this scheme, Christian and Islamic Religious Studies, which are separately taught, will now be merged under a compulsory subject known as Religion and National Values (RNV).

Other subjects brought under the RNV include Civic Education, Social Studies, and Security Education.

In order to ensure uniform implementation, the NERDC has developed a Teacher’s Guide for each subject listed.

Under this guide, Primary 1-3 pupils would offer a minimum of six and a maximum of seven subjects, JSS 1-3, a minimum of nine subjects and maximum of 10, while Primary 4-6 will offer a minimum of eight and a maximum of nine subjects.