New Curriculum and 2026 WAEC Exams: December 6 Clarification of the Federal Ministry of Education Offers No Solution.
ERC Calls on Education Minister to Abide by the December 4 Resolution of House of Representatives that Current SSS 3 Students Must be Allowed to Sit for Only Subjects They Have Been Taught Since SSS 1.
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC), together with other groups representing parents, teachers, and students, strongly notes that the statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) on Saturday December 6, 2025, to purportedly clarify “subject selection under the Senior Secondary School Curriculum as WAEC registration continues” fails to address the fundamental issue at the centre of the controversy over the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates. The question is whether it is rational to make the current Senior Secondary School 3 (SSS 3) students to take any subject which they have not been taught since SSS 1 in the 2026 WAEC examination. Unfortunately, it is this irrationality that both the Ministry and WAEC are out to perpetrate in the certificate examination.
According to the statement of the Federal Ministry of Education, “the Honorable Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa FAMedS, CON, and the Minister of State for Education, Professor Sa’id Suwaiba Ahmad, explained that there is no restriction or exclusion attached to the selection of any approved subject within the Senior Secondary School Curriculum. ………They further noted that a science student may select subjects classified under the social sciences or arts, while students in the arts and social sciences may also choose subjects traditionally grouped under the sciences.”
The implication of the above quoted statement of the Federal Ministry of Education is that an SSS 3 science student who took, from SSS 1, Computer Studies and Civic Education, both subjects which have been removed from the new curriculum and not on the WAEC portal, would have to now select two new subjects from arts (humanities) or social sciences (business) which they have not been taught since SSS 1 in order to have a minimum of 8 subjects as mandated by WAEC. And this leaves a student with roughly four months, from December 2025 to April 2026 to study the two new subjects, which are designed to be taught for three academic sessions, and sit for them in the WAEC examination. This is totally absurd.
It should be recalled that on September 3, 2025, the Federal Ministry of Education announced through a statement a major review of the national school curriculum. However, the statement emphasized a transition period, noting that “The Ministry assures parents, teachers, and students that it will provide the necessary support to ensure a smooth transition to the revised curriculum.” Following the Ministry’s announcement, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the statutory body responsible for curriculum development, stated in its public statement of September 25, 2025 (paragraph 15) that “Implementation commences at the beginning of each three‑year learning cycle (Primary 1, Primary 4, JSS 1 and SSS 1).” This, in other words, means that the new curriculum is expected to be used as the basis for WAEC examination from 2028 when the current SSS 1 students WAEC would be in SSS 3.
Therefore, it is incomprehensible why the Federal Ministry of Education has gone back on its original prescription, which aligns with best practice and common sense, by approving the irrational plan of WAEC to begin the implementation of the new curriculum in its examination with the current SSS 3 students. Again, the practical implication of this is that most students cannot register for the minimum eight (8) subjects required unless they register for additional subjects they have not studied since SSS 1.
To illustrate this, we will cite a few examples:
(1) Science students who are currently studying Mathematics, English, Civic, Tourism, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, and Computer Studies are being compelled to register for at least two new subjects they have never been taught to meet the minimum eight (8) subjects required by WAEC as Civic Education, Tourism and Computer Studies are not part of the New Curriculum and have been removed from the registration portal.
(2) Business students who are currently studying Mathematics, English, Civic, Storekeeping, Accounting, Commerce, Government, Economics, and Insurance are being compelled to register for at least two new subjects they have been never taught to meet the minimum eight (8) subjects required by WAEC as Civic Education, Storekeeping and Insurance are not part of the New Curriculum and have been removed from the registration portal.
(3) Humanities students who are currently studying Mathematics, English, Civic, Dyeing and Bleaching, CRS or IRK, Literature-in-English, One Nigerian Language, Government, and Economics, are being compelled to register for at least one new subject they have never been taught to meet the minimum eight (8) subjects required by WAEC as Civic Education and Dyeing and Bleaching are not part of the New Curriculum and have been removed from the registration portal.
Therefore, we commend the House of Representatives for passing a resolution on December 4, 2025, asking the Federal Ministry of Education to suspend plan to conduct 2026 WASSCE on the basis of the new curriculum and allow current SSS 3 students to sit for subjects they have been learning over the last three years. We call on the Ministry to abide by this resolution and instruct WAEC accordingly.
Aligning with our argument and what is common sense, the House in the resolution stated that “We are also worried that with the West African Senior School Certificate Examination barely four months away, it is academically impossible for students to select and adequately prepare for new, unstudied subjects to meet the required eight subjects.” The resolution correctly added that “The House is worried that thousands of students across the federation preparing for the 2026 WASSCE to be conducted by WAEC are in distress and confusion as we speak. It is imperative that students in SSS 3, who are four months away from their examinations, be allowed to write the WASSCE in subjects they have been studying since SS1”
Sadly, two days after the resolution of the House of Representatives with its lucid argument, which was widely published in the media, the Federal Ministry of Education still came out with a so-called clarification, in a statement signed by its Director, Press and Public Relations, which misses the crux of the matter: it is unthinkable to plan to make the current SSS 3 students to sit for subjects they have not studied since SSS 1 in the 2026 WASSCE which is barely four months away.
Indeed, we find it even more disturbing that the Ministers of Education and the ministry appear to be ignorant or clueless of the real situation as it is related to the curriculum and the forthcoming WASSCE. This apparently explains why the Ministry has been making a shot in the dark, rather than a meaningful clarification. For instance, the Ministry in its December 6 statement said “The Ministers also clarified issues relating to the subject formerly known as Information and Communication Technology. They stated that the subject has now been renamed Digital Technology, stressing that the change is purely in nomenclature and does not alter the curriculum content. Students who previously offered Information and Communication Technology are therefore fully eligible to sit for Digital Technology during registration and examinations.”
The above quoted statement is a sheer demonstration of ignorance by the Federal Ministry of Education. There is no subject called Information and Communication Technology for Nigerian students in WAEC. It is for students in the Gambia. Besides, WAEC in its letter to school principals which was dated November 21, 2025 categorically stated that Digital Technology will not be examined until 2028 because it has not yet developed curriculum and examination syllabus for the subject. This is contrary to the assertion of the Ministry that students can register and sit for Digital Technology in the 2026 WASSCE. To be clear, the letter reads in part: “Citizenship and Heritage Studies and Digital Technologies are new subjects that require the development of new curricula and examination syllabuses and would therefore not be examined until 2028 (after a full implementation of the syllabus)” (Emphasis ours)
We also note that while WAEC’s November 21, 2025, letter to school principals omitted Civic Education and Automobile Mechanics from the list of subjects to be examined in 2026, the Federal Ministry of Education’s public statement on November 25, 2025, unveiling online classes for secondary school students, included both subjects among those available online. This raises the question: why were Civic Education and Automobile Mechanics listed by the Ministry if they will not be tested in the 2026 exams?
Therefore, we call on the Federal Ministry of Education to put its act together and let Nigerians see and enjoy value for their money used to pay the management staffs and run the ministry. It is preposterous for a body assigned with administration of education to be associated with any form of ignorance, cluelessness or untidiness.
By and large, while we of the ERC, together with other groups representing parents, teachers, and students, welcome the new curriculum’s goal of reducing subject overload, we stress that WAEC’s insistence on using it for the 2026 examination is misguided and unjust, leaving the current SSS 3 students disadvantaged and shortchanged. We, therefore, call for a fair and sensible approach, which would be to delay the use of the new curriculum as the basis for the WAEC examinations until 2028, allowing the existing curriculum to run its full course through 2027.
Adaramoye Michael Lenin
National Mobilisation Officer, ERC
E-mail: [email protected]
Olanrewaju Akinola
Representative, Concerned Parents
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