By Ben Ngwakwe, Gombe
Professor of curriculum and instruction, Salisu Ali Rakum, has advocated the cultivation of positive behaviour, saying that it’s most effectively achieved through formal educational curricula.
According to him, it facilitates the needed development that could promote national unity, stability, and peaceful co-existence.
Speaking at the third inaugural lecture on Tuesday, at the Federal University Kashere.
PERISCOPE NIGERIA reports that Rakum who presented his inaugural lecture on ‘Curriculum Dynamics and Moral Decadence Pandemic in Nigeria’, emphasised that the pivotal role that behaviour plays in the survival and well – being of individuals and the nation as a whole cannot be overemphasised.
Tracing the evolution of curriculum from 1842 to the present day, Professor Rakum said Nigeria has experimented with various educational approaches, including civics education, social studies, and hybrid models combining elements of both, adding that despite these efforts, the inadequacy of these approaches, the lackluster and discouraging results raised important and unresolved questions about the efficacy of current formal curriculum being used for behaviour modification and pointed to a concerning state of affairs that warranted further examination and intervention.
He added that efforts should be made to engage with agents of informal curriculum such as the local community leaders, parents and guardians to address negative influences in the informal curriculum while the National Orientation Agency (NOA) should be mandated to engage them in discussions, workshops, seminars, sensitisation and initiatives, aimed at promoting positive values and behaviours.
Professor of curriculum and instruction who is also the Director of Past -Time Studies at the Federal University of Kashere said despite fervent calls for the abandonment of formal education by anti- formal groups, such as Descholars, Homeschoolers, and Alternative Educators, it was evident that formal education has stood the test of time, profoundly transforming society across social, economic, political, cultural and technological dimensions.
Rakum said that the establishment of a boarding school can serve as an effective strategy to minimise the influence of the informal curriculum on students.
“Boarding schools have the potential to significantly mitigate the negative impact of the informal curriculum by creating a structured and controlled environment that fosters positive learning experiences, such an approach can help to promote academic focus a limit distraction that may stem from informal sources.
” Presently,formal education has become indispensable, firmly entrenched in the fabric of modern life” while the Scholar combined various disciplines such as education, sociology, psychology, and history to provide a comprehensive analysis of behaviour modification in Nigerian,” he said.
Professor Rakum stressed particular attention to the role of the curriculum in behaviour modification and examined the formal curriculum subjects such as Civics, Social studies and Citizenship education,as well as the informal curriculum that influences such as societal curriculum, concomitant, Phantom curriculum, and Rhetorical curriculum among others.
“Such a transformation would not only affect the present but may also lay the foundation for a more promising future , where the divides that have hindered societal cohesion and progress could be relegated to history,” Rakum said.
He explored the strengths and weaknesses of these curricula and suggested ways to improve their effectiveness which addresses the societal challenges that influenced behaviour modification in Nigeria such as religious and ethnic conflicts, corruption, and,socio – economic disparities which had created implications for behaviour modification efforts in Nigeria.
Rakum said that the successful implementation of those strategies have the potential to lead to a transformative shift in the societal dynamics of Nigeria thereby achieving unity, stability and peaceful coexistence within the nation would mark a pivotal moment in Nigeria’ s development, freeing it from the challenges experienced by other nations such as Yugoslavia, Sudan, Kosovo, and Rwanda.
The scholar recommended that in order to address and rectify the negative impact of the informal curriculum that a comprehensive approach that involves multiple stakeholders and strategic interventions is necessary and the efficacy of the various collaborative efforts of actors within the educational ecosystem.
According to him, ” key stakeholders that are vital for the successful implementation of the recommended measures included teachers, educational administrators, and governmental bodies such as ministries of education at both federal and state levels.”
Additionally, the active participation of curriculum development agencies such as Universal Basic Education Commission ( UBEC), National Teachers Institute (NTI), National Educational Research Development Council (NERDC), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Universities Commission ( NUC) is crucial to ensure the comprehensive and effective execution of the proposed recommendations.
Also, the Vice- Chancellor, Professor Umaru Pate, commended Professor Salisu Rakum, saying that the inaugural lecture is an event where a new professor at a university shares their past research, scholarship and future research interests with their colleagues, students and others.
He said that the goals of an inaugural lecture can be summarised as one’s scholarship and contribution to knowledge and to present one’s scholarship in a simplified manner for an audience of non-experts in the field.
