Religious studies curriculum: CAN rubbishes education minister's claims

- 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?”

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To buttress his point, 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.

They went on to list 5 of their key demands in respect of the issue.

1. The implementation of the curriculum must be suspended till a workshop is organized where all the stakeholders must be well represented.

2. The presidency should direct the federal ministry of education to publish the full details of the curriculum on its website to enable everyone know what it contains.

3. There was nothing wrong with the old curriculum on Christian Religious Studies and Islamic Religious Studies. What people are yearning for is a return to Civic Education and History for obvious reasons as distinct subjects.

4. That the heads of the parastatals and agencies in the federal ministry of education should be overhauled with a view to balancing the religious dichotomy. A situation where 13 of their heads are Muslims while the remaining four are Christians is an ill-wind that would blow no one any good.

5. We urge the presidency to call for a meeting of all stakeholders to look at this curriculum line by line and for all of us to own it together before implementation.

They threatened that if their call is taken for granted and nothing is done quickly, they will take further action.

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Meanwhile, the founder of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman has stated that the move by the ministry of education is a plan to Islamise Nigeria.

"This is a well-orchestrated and articulated plot. Let nobody try to fool Nigerians that it was a mistake or a coincidence. Why is it that CRK would be removed as a subject to be studied from the secondary school curriculum while Islamic/Arabic studies is retained? This is a plan from hell and it shall not stand," Apostle Suleman said in a statement sent to Legit.ng.

Watch Acting President Yemi Osinbajo talk about the unity of Nigeria on Legit.ng TV below:

Source: Legit.ng