In a statement issued on Monday, the group said the Ministry’s December 6 press release failed to address the core concern raised by parents, teachers and students, which includes the insistence that current senior secondary (SSS 3) students should take subjects they have not been taught since SSS 1.
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has criticised the Federal Ministry of Education over what it described as a “meaningless clarification” on the implementation of the revised Senior Secondary School Curriculum ahead of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
In a statement issued on Monday, the group said the Ministry’s December 6 press release failed to address the core concern raised by parents, teachers and students, which includes the insistence that current senior secondary (SSS 3) students should take subjects they have not been taught since SSS 1.
According to the Ministry’s statement, Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, and Minister of State for Education, Professor Sa’id Suwaiba Ahmad, maintained that there is “no restriction or exclusion attached to the selection of any approved subject within the Senior Secondary School Curriculum.”
The statement added that science students may select subjects from the arts and social sciences and vice versa.
According to the ministers, the curriculum is designed to be flexible, student-centred and supportive of diverse academic interests and career pathways.
But the ERC dismissed the clarifications as an evasion, arguing that the implication is that thousands of students must now hurriedly pick new subjects absent from the WAEC portal due to the curriculum changes.
“It is irrational to make the current SSS 3 students take any subject which they have not been taught since SSS 1 in the 2026 WAEC examination,” the group stated in the statement signed by its National Mobilisation Officer, Adaramoye Michael Lenin, and Olanrewaju Akinola, representative of Concerned Parents.
“This is exactly what both the Ministry and WAEC are out to perpetrate.”
The ERC noted that subjects such as Civic Education, Computer Studies, Tourism, Storekeeping and Insurance, previously taught from SSS 1, have been removed from the WAEC registration portal because they are not in the new curriculum.
As a result, the group warned, students are now being compelled to select new subjects from unfamiliar fields with only four months to prepare.
The group illustrated the problem with examples: science students who previously studied Mathematics, English, Civic, Tourism, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics and Computer Studies must now register for at least two new subjects.
ERC said that based on the new curriculum, business students must replace three missing subjects, while humanities students are also forced to pick new courses to reach WAEC’s minimum eight-subject requirement.
The ERC recalled that the Federal Ministry of Education’s September 3, 2025, announcement on the curriculum review emphasised a transition period.
The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) later clarified that the new curriculum would be implemented only at the beginning of each three-year cycle: Primary 1, Primary 4, JSS 1 and SSS 1.
“This means that the new curriculum should only form the basis for WAEC examinations from 2028, when today’s SSS 1 students reach SSS 3,” the ERC argued, describing the Ministry’s current position as “incomprehensible.”
The group commended the House of Representatives for its December 4, 2025, resolution directing the Ministry to halt plans to use the new curriculum for the 2026 WASSCE.
The House had warned that with the exam barely four months away, “it is academically impossible for students to select and adequately prepare for new, unstudied subjects.”
However, the ERC expressed disappointment that despite the National Assembly’s resolution, the Federal Ministry of Education released another statement on December 6, “which misses the crux of the matter.”
The group also faulted the Ministry’s claim that Information and Communication Technology had merely been renamed Digital Technology, insisting that ICT is not a WAEC subject in Nigeria.
It cited a WAEC circular dated November 21, 2025, which stated that “Digital Technologies… would therefore not be examined until 2028 because it requires new curriculum and syllabus development.”
“This is contrary to the assertion of the Ministry that students can register and sit for Digital Technology in the 2026 WASSCE,” the ERC said.
The group further questioned why the Ministry included Civic Education and Automobile Mechanics in its November 25 publication announcing online classes if they would not be examined in 2026.
Calling for accountability, the ERC urged the Ministry to “put its act together and let Nigerians see value for their money,” describing the ongoing confusion as “preposterous for a body assigned with the administration of education.”
While supporting the long-term objective of reducing subject overload, the ERC insisted that introducing the new curriculum for the 2026 WASSCE is “misguided, unjust and leaves the current SSS 3 students disadvantaged.”
It reiterated its demand that WAEC postpone implementation until 2028, allowing the existing curriculum to run through 2027 as originally planned.