The body also urged the government to increase funding to the secondary education sub-sector.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja, the President-General of the Unity Schools Old Students Association, Michael Mogaji said that the body would also work with the government to ensure that Unity schools are returned to their former glory.
The Press reports that Nigeria currently has 110 Unity schools spread across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
Presently, controversies have continued to trail funding of education in the country with the government saying it cannot fund education alone.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation recently joined the calls for a review of Nigeria’s educational curriculum to meet present-day realities, saying the present curriculum is outdated and overloaded.
The UNESCO director of the International Bureau of Education Ydo Yao, during a capacity development training, said to address the education crisis, there was a need for action in making curriculum relevant to ensure quality in education and that values, knowledge, and skills thrived.
Mogaji said, “There is so much to complain about. But as a body, we are here to simply provide solutions. We are solutions driven. A look at the sector and we are focused on working to solve problems. Funding is one of them. Also on the issue of curriculum, we are saying the curriculum is not relevant, but it has to adapt to the times.
“The discussion now should be on how we adapt our curriculum to the realities of today’s world. people are moving from theories to actual soft skills. What’s the quality of emotional intelligence, for example, kids are being taught in schools but they are not trained on emotional intelligence. We need to move our curriculum from where we are now to where the rest of the world is We need a curriculum that will stand the test of the present time.”
Speaking further, He said, “There have been so many conferences and so many seminars over the years however, we are set on engaging stakeholders at the highest levels to see what we can do to help.”