Following criticisms that trailed the policy of combining the two religious studies, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has disclosed that it has re-introduced separate curriculums for Christian Religious Studies (CRS) and Islamic Religious Studies (IRS), as school subjects.
The Executive Secretary of NERD, Prof. Ismail Junaid, made the disclosure to the media in an interview on Monday.
Junaid said that NERDC initially had both as a subject called the Religions and National Value comprising of IRS, CRS and National Values being in one curriculum.
He explained that the National Values comprised Social Studies, Security Education and Civic Education.
“Now, we have separated them into three different curriculums including, CRS, IRS and National Values, which used to be in one curriculum before.
“We have finished all the process and before the end of this year, all the copies of the separate curriculum will get to all states’ ministries of education for onward distributions to schools,” Junaid said.
The Executive Director said that NERDC was ready to partner with the ministries of education on how to make the curriculum available in schools, stressing, that “without curriculum, no meaningful learning would take place”.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, had earlier directed NERDC to make the CRS and IRS distinctive subjects in the basic education curriculum.
The directive to separate the subjects was informed by complaints by Nigerians, especially the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).