The Federal Government has concluded plans to review school curriculum as part of its soft approach to stemming extremism among the youth, combating terrorism and making the education sector more productive.
Already, an extensive assessment of schools across Northern Nigeria has been conducted in order to gain a better understanding of the state of education in the region, according to the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), who addressed the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York on Monday.
The UN Council had invited Dasuki to elaborate on the non-military aspect of Nigeria’s Countering Violent Extremism programme also known as the Soft Approach to countering terrorism, which was first unveiled to Nigerians on March 18, 2014.
The CVE programme includes four aspects: De-radicalisation, Strategic Communication, Counter-Radicalisation and Economic Regeneration.
Dasuki noted that in order to achieve the programme’s objectives, key projects had been designed to ensure that education was used as a tool to stem extremism by emphasising the teaching of critical thinking and logical reasoning as well as sports, music, arts, and drama while also creating psychological support structures for victims of terrorism.
He said, “We have conducted extensive assessments of schools across Northern Nigeria in order to gain a better understanding of the state of education. We have now begun preliminary consultations with the Ministry of Education with regard to potential changes to the national curriculum and will be hosting an Education Summit, bringing together key stakeholders and policy-makers.”
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