Towards a functional education curriculum
Education is crucial in any society for the preservation of lives of its members and the maintenance of social structure. In the history of our pre-colonial existence, we are told from folk tales that our ancient people had unique ways of documenting events, such that they could go to the wall were they inscribed some marks and tell their children or relations what exactly transpired on that day. They equally developed a system of oral communication, traditional norms and values which they passed on to their children and generations. Nigeria was a colony of British imperialist until flag independence was granted on October Ist, 1960 and the conferment of a status of a Republic in 1963. Notwithstanding the divergent views held by scholars of History, it can be rightly argued that the contribution of Britain in the civilization process of Nigeria is an indelible milestone that propelled Nigeria's march from a primordial and classically primitive antecedent into continental and global political relevance.

There is no doubt that Nigeria as a nation had witnessed a series of Educational Systems since its birth in 1914. Immediately after independence in Nigeria, there were a lot of ills and shortcomings in Nigerian educational system as it was based on the British educational system which did not pave way for yearning needs, interests and aspirations of Nigerian society. Upon the attainment of independence in 1960, there was the call for outright rejection of the education legacy of the former British overlords. According to Babatunde Fafunwa, the educational system should meet the yearnings and aspirations of the nation. Towards accomplishing just that, there was the need to re-appraise its goals, objectives and content. This was the reason for holding the National Conference on Curriculum Development at Lagos in September 1969. The central message of the conference was the promotion of national consciousness and self-reliance via educational training. About 8 years after the conference, precisely 1977, a National Policy on Education was produced. The document had been revised in 1981, 1989 and 2004. Altogether, the 61-page policy document has thirteen sections.

Paradoxically, in spite of her enormous natural and human resources, Nigeria's education system is bedevilled with myriad of problems. However, with this retinue of problems that plague our educational system, successive administrations have paid lip service to the issue of a functional school curriculum. Comparatively speaking, Nigeria's education system is rather quantitative than qualitative-oriented. A lot of people have alleged that military incursion into politics is substantially responsible for the devastating deterioration in the objectives and goals of our school system. A sad incidence of history was the forceful takeover of private and missionary schools which were pacesetters in boarding and efficient classroom administration. This is why the plans by some Governors to return schools to their original private and proprietors have been accorded with thunderous applauses.

I remembered that I was once playing with one of my nephews and I asked him to sing nursery rhyme for me. I was disappointed when the young boy started singing “London Bridge is falling down; London Bridge is falling down …etc”. I asked him what lessons can be deduced from the nursery rhyme and to my utter amazement he told me the lessons therein and even volunteered to tell me the origin of the song. I was really held spellbound by the level of intelligent quotient of my six-year old nephew. However I was disappointed when I asked him to tell me what he knows about Chibok. He said what is Chy-boz (as pronounced by him)? I further asked him if he has ever heard of Biafra and he said no. This is a sad reality of happenings in our education system. These are the supposedly leaders of tomorrow that are expected to come and resolve the problems in Nigeria. How can one solve a problem he does know