The Disconnect Between Social Studies Curriculum and

Nigerian Realities: A Position Paper

Abstract
This position paper examines the significant gap between Nigeria's Social Studies
curriculum and the lived realities of Nigerian students. Through analysis of
curriculum content and contemporary social challenges, I argue that the current
curriculum's avoidance of contentious issues, including ethnic tensions, religious
conflicts, corruption, and economic struggles, renders the subject increasingly
irrelevant to students' lives. Drawing on curriculum theory and Nigerian educational
research, I propose that Social Studies must engage directly with these realities to
fulfil its mandate of preparing informed, critically-thinking citizens. The paper
advocates for a pedagogically courageous approach that treats contemporary social
challenges as essential content rather than topics to be avoided.

Introduction
Nigerian students encounter a peculiar contradiction in their Social Studies
classrooms. Whilst their communities grapple with ethnic violence, religious tensions,
endemic corruption, and economic hardship, their textbooks present sanitised
narratives of national unity, harmonious diversity, and civic responsibility. This
disconnect between curriculum and reality has transformed Social Studies from a
potentially powerful tool for social understanding into what many students perceive
as an exercise in memorising irrelevant abstractions (Ekiugbo, 2024).
The stakes of this curriculum failure extend beyond pedagogical concerns. Between
1999 and 2021, Nigeria recorded 2,811 incidents of ethnic conflict with 18,132
fatalities, 3,703 incidents of religious conflict with 29,957 fatalities, and 117 incidents
of ethno-religious conflict with 2,420 fatalities (Ikelegbe & Umukoro, 2023). Youth
unemployment remains critical, with over 80 million young Nigerians unemployed as
of 2024 (Alao-Akala, 2025). Yet the Social Studies curriculum, designed explicitly to
prepare citizens capable of understanding and addressing such challenges,
systematically avoids the very issues students must comprehend to participate
meaningfully in their society. This paper examines the nature and consequences of
this disconnect, arguing for fundamental curriculum reform that centres Nigerian
realities rather than evading them.

Literature Review
The Purpose and Promise of Social Studies Education
Social Studies emerged in Nigerian education with explicit citizenship education
goals. The subject was introduced to foster national consciousness, promote social
integration, and develop students' ability to understand and address societal
problems (Unimna & Antigha, 2024). The Nigerian Educational Research and
Development Council's 2025 curriculum reforms maintain these aims, introducing
"Citizenship and Heritage Studies" that merges Nigerian History, Civic Education,
and Social Studies at senior secondary level (Federal Ministry of Education, 2025).
This ambitious mandate reflects international consensus on Social Studies purposes.
Banks (2008) argues that effective citizenship education must help students
understand the historical roots of contemporary social divisions and develop
capacities for democratic participation in diverse societies. Barton and Levstik (2004)
emphasise that Social Studies should connect past and present, helping students
use historical understanding to analyse current issues.
However, Nigerian scholars have consistently documented the gap between these
stated aims and actual curriculum implementation. A 2024 study found that Social
Studies curriculum in Nigeria faces significant challenges in addressing 21st-century
realities, with students demonstrating low engagement due to perceived irrelevance
(Ukata & Silas-Dikibo, 2024). Similarly, research examining the implementation of
Social Studies themes under the Religion and National Values curriculum revealed
that whilst the subject promotes knowledge acquisition for solving social problems,
students remain unwilling to learn due to disconnection from their lived experiences
(Sofadekan, 2020).

Curriculum Relevance and Student Engagement

Research on curriculum relevance suggests that students' perception of subject
matter as connected to their lives significantly affects both engagement and learning
outcomes. Kember et al. (2008) found that perceived relevance strongly predicts
student motivation and achievement. In the Nigerian context, Ekiugbo (2024)
documented that despite years of Social Studies implementation, the programme
has failed to inculcate values of good citizenship among youths, who remain "rich in
social vices" partly because the curriculum doesn't speak to their realities.
The concept of "curriculum relevance" extends beyond surface connections to
students' interests. Ladson-Billings (1995) argues for "culturally relevant pedagogy"
that uses students' lived experiences as foundations for learning whilst
simultaneously developing critical consciousness about social inequalities. This
approach, she contends, makes education both more engaging and more
transformative.
Nigerian researchers have applied similar frameworks. A 2020 study examining
Social Studies curriculum in Nigeria among global realities argued that the
curriculum must address emergent issues challenging the nation, including terrorism,
kidnapping, Fulani herdsmen attacks, and Boko Haram attacks (Edinyang & Ubi,
2020). The researchers emphasised that these issues represent hostile threats to
national development that Social Studies education ought to tackle by making the
subject compulsory at all educational levels.

The Politics of Curriculum Content

Curriculum content is never politically neutral. Apple (2004) argues that decisions
about what to include or exclude from curricula reflect and reproduce particular
power relations. In divided societies, curriculum development becomes especially
contentious as different groups seek to have their perspectives represented or to
suppress perspectives they find threatening.
Nigeria's ethnic and religious diversity makes curriculum politics particularly fraught.
Recent research documents how curriculum controversies reflect deeper social
divisions, with different communities suspicious that educational content might favour
other groups (Akpama et al., 2022). This political sensitivity contributes to curriculum
developers' tendency towards vagueness and avoidance of contentious topics.
However, scholars warn that such avoidance carries its own costs. Hess (2009)
argues that schools that avoid controversial issues fail in their democratic education
mandate. Students in such schools don't develop the skills needed for informed
citizenship in pluralistic societies. Skills like perspective-taking, evidence-based
argumentation, and tolerance for disagreement.

Social Studies and Nigerian Social Challenges

Recent scholarship has examined how Nigerian Social Studies curricula handle, or
fail to handle, specific social challenges. Considering ethnic relations, research notes
that whilst textbooks acknowledge Nigeria's ethnic diversity, they rarely examine how
ethnicity functions in political mobilisation, resource allocation, or violent conflict
(Ossai, 2024). Students learn ethnic groups exist but not why ethnic identity became
politically salient or how ethnic tensions might be addressed.
Religious diversity receives similarly superficial treatment. A 2024 study on Christian-
Muslim relations in Nigeria found that whilst roughly equal Christian and Muslim
populations coexist, the country has experienced various degrees of ethnoreligious
conflict, yet educational responses remain inadequate (Ossai, 2024). The curriculum
emphasises religious tolerance as a value but doesn't provide frameworks for
understanding religious conflict or analysing how religious identity intersects with
other forms of social organisation.
Corruption has received particular attention from researchers critiquing curriculum
content. Nigeria's 2024 National Survey on Corruption found that roughly US$1.26
billion (0.35% of GDP) was paid in cash bribes to public officials in 2023, with
corruption ranking among the most important problems affecting Nigerians after cost
of living, insecurity, and unemployment (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
[UNODC] & National Bureau of Statistics [NBS], 2024). Yet Social Studies textbooks
present corruption primarily as individual moral failure rather than systemic
phenomenon, providing students no tools to understand why corruption persists or
how it might be structurally addressed (Unimna & Antigha, 2024).
Economic issues receive inadequate attention relative to their importance in
students' lives. Despite official statistics showing youth unemployment at 8.6% in
2023, experts argue this figure results from controversial methodological changes,
with 2020 data showing 53.4% of 15- to 24-year-olds unemployed (Mbachu, 2025). A
2024 parliamentary report revealed over 80 million Nigerian youths unemployed, with
poverty affecting 40.1% of Nigerians (82.9 million people), yet curriculum discussions
of Nigeria's economy rarely engage with structural unemployment, inequality, or the
dominance of informal economic activities (Alao-Akala, 2025).

Gaps in Existing Literature

Whilst scholars have documented specific inadequacies in Social Studies curriculum
content, there's limited research examining the cumulative effect of these
disconnects on students' perceptions of the subject's relevance. Moreover, most
critiques focus on what the curriculum should include rather than analysing why
problematic silences persist. This paper addresses both gaps, examining not just the
nature of curriculum-reality disconnect but also its consequences and the political
dynamics that sustain it.

Objectives
This position paper aims to:
1. Document and analyse the specific ways Nigerian Social Studies curricula fail to
address contemporary social realities, with particular attention to ethnic tensions,
religious diversity, corruption, and economic challenges
2. Examine the consequences of this disconnect for student engagement, learning
outcomes, and preparation for informed citizenship
3. Explore the political and institutional factors that sustain curriculum avoidance of
contentious issues
4. Argue for a pedagogically courageous approach to Social Studies that centres
Nigerian realities and develops students' capacities for critical social analysis
5. Propose principles for curriculum reform that balance honest engagement with
controversial topics against concerns about sensitivity and social cohesion

Position and Analysis

The Nature of the Disconnect
The gap between Social Studies curriculum and Nigerian realities manifests across
multiple dimensions. Examining each reveals not random oversight but systematic
avoidance of precisely those issues most central to students' lived experiences.
Ethnic Relations: Labels Without Analysis
Nigerian Social Studies textbooks typically include units on ethnic diversity. Students
learn that Nigeria comprises over 250 ethnic groups, that the three largest are
Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo, and that each group has distinctive cultural
practices. Maps show ethnic group distributions. Lessons emphasise that diversity is
a national strength requiring mutual tolerance and respect.
This presentation stops precisely where understanding should begin. Students
receive labels but no analytical frameworks for comprehending why ethnicity became
a primary axis of political identity and conflict in Nigeria. The curriculum doesn't
examine how colonial administration created ethnic categories for administrative
convenience, often hardening fluid cultural boundaries into fixed identities (Ossai,
2024). It doesn't explore how post-independence leaders mobilised ethnic identities
for political advantage, transforming cultural difference into political antagonism.
The scale of ethnic violence in contemporary Nigeria demands serious curriculum
attention. Research documenting ethnoreligious conflicts found that between 1999
and 2021, Nigeria recorded 2,811 incidents of ethnic conflict resulting in 18,132
fatalities (Ikelegbe & Umukoro, 2023). When such violence erupts, in Jos, in the
Niger Delta, between farmers and herders, students witness communal mobilisation,
counter-mobilisation, and violence justified through ethnic frames. Yet their Social
Studies education hasn't equipped them to analyse these events.
Students growing up in ethnically mixed areas make daily choices about identity
presentation, friendship boundaries, and spatial navigation based on ethnic
considerations. The curriculum's silence about these realities suggests either that
educators don't recognise their importance or that they've judged honest discussion
too risky. Either way, students are denied tools for understanding forces shaping
their lives.
Religious Diversity: Acknowledgement Without Understanding
Religious diversity receives parallel treatment. Curricula acknowledge that Nigeria is
roughly evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, with traditional religions
also present. Lessons emphasise constitutional provisions for religious freedom and
the importance of religious tolerance. Then the topic is essentially closed.
This approach ignores how religion functions in Nigerian public life. Students don't
examine why religious identity maps so closely onto regional and sometimes ethnic
identities, creating overlapping cleavages. Research on religious violence in Nigeria
notes that whilst roughly equal Christian and Muslim populations coexist, the country
has experienced various degrees of religious conflict, with 3,703 incidents of
religious conflict causing 29,957 fatalities between 1999 and 2021 (Ikelegbe &
Umukoro, 2023).
The curriculum doesn't help students understand debates about Sharia law, religious
content in public education, or the role of religion in national identity formation. Most
critically, students aren't given frameworks for understanding religious violence.
Analysis of violent conflict in Nigeria found that exposure to religious violence
significantly increases hostility towards ethnic and religious outgroups, particularly
among Christians affected by conflicts with Fulani pastoralists (Scacco & Warren,
2021).
Students in cities like Jos navigate daily realities where religious identity determines
which areas are safe to enter, which transport to use, sometimes which schools or
hospitals to attend. Their Social Studies textbooks present religious diversity as
though it were analogous to diversity in favourite foods. Colourful, enriching,
essentially unproblematic if everyone just respects differences. This gap between
curriculum representation and lived experience doesn't go unnoticed by students. It
teaches them that Social Studies isn't actually about understanding their social
world.
Corruption: Moral Condemnation Without Structural Analysis
Corruption appears in Social Studies curricula primarily in units on citizenship or
governance. Students learn that corruption involves abuse of public office for private
gain, that it's morally wrong, that it hinders development, and that good citizens
should be honest. Anti-corruption slogans appear. Leaders' responsibility to be
accountable gets mentioned. Then the curriculum moves on.
What's entirely absent is serious analysis of corruption as systemic feature rather
than individual moral failing. Nigeria's 2024 National Survey on Corruption revealed
that roughly US$1.26 billion, 0.35% of the country's GDP, was paid in cash bribes to
public officials in 2023 (UNODC & NBS, 2024). Corruption ranks among the most
important problems affecting Nigerians, after cost of living, insecurity, and
unemployment. Yet students aren't helped to understand how corruption became
embedded in Nigerian governance or why it persists despite decades of anti-
corruption rhetoric.
Research on youth unemployment and crime in Nigeria found that corruption and
theft of public funds are significant factors undermining youth development, with
young Nigerians particularly affected by the mismanagement of public resources
(Ngboawaji, 2024). Students watch their parents "settle" police officers at
checkpoints, pay unofficial fees to access public services, or navigate systems
where formal procedures rarely work without informal interventions. An
Afrobarometer survey found that 73% of Nigerians believe that "most" or "all" police
officials are corrupt, yet only 9% of youth rate the government positively on fighting
corruption (Mbachu, 2025).
This creates profound dissonance between classroom lessons and daily experience.
The curriculum offers only moral condemnation, telling students corruption is wrong
but providing no tools for understanding why it's persistent or how it might be
addressed beyond appealing to individual virtue. Students aren't encouraged to
analyse connections between corruption and other issues. Why do schools lack
facilities despite budget allocations? How does diversion of public resources relate to
unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, or poor healthcare?
Economic Realities: Optimism Without Analysis
Economic content in Social Studies curricula typically emphasises Nigeria's potential.
Vast oil reserves, agricultural capacity, large population as market and workforce,
expanding economy. Students might learn about different economic sectors, perhaps
encounter basic concepts like supply and demand or GDP. The tone is generally
optimistic. Nigeria as emerging economy, Africa's giant with bright prospects.
This framing bears little resemblance to students' economic realities. A 2025
parliamentary report revealed that over 80 million Nigerian youths are unemployed,
with widespread poverty affecting 40.1% of Nigerians (82.9 million people) (Alao-
Akala, 2025). Despite official statistics showing youth unemployment at 8.6% in
2023, experts argue this figure results from controversial methodological changes,
with 2020 data showing 53.4% of 15- to 24-year-olds unemployed. Figures much
more aligned with reality on the ground (Mbachu, 2025).
Research on youth unemployment in Nigeria found that government corruption
contributes significantly through mismanagement of public funds, resulting in lack of
investment in youth development (Adeniji, 2024). Furthermore, nepotism often
dictates who gets hired for available positions, with connections and bribes playing
more significant roles than qualifications and merit. Students watch classmates who
performed well academically struggle to find work. They see graduates driving
motorcycles as commercial transport or selling goods in markets.
The curriculum doesn't help students understand why. It doesn't examine structural
unemployment's roots in economic policies that prioritised oil extraction over
industrialisation, creating jobless growth. Students don't learn about Dutch disease
effects, whereby oil wealth undermined manufacturing and agriculture. They don't
analyse why Africa's most populous nation, with significant natural resources, has
struggled to provide opportunities for its young people.
The informal economy, where most Nigerians actually work, barely features in Social
Studies curricula. Students whose parents are traders, artisans, small-scale farmers,
or informal service providers won't find their families' economic activities reflected in
textbook discussions focused on formal sector employment and corporate structures.
This isn't incidental oversight. It represents fundamental misunderstanding of
Nigerian economic life and a curriculum that privileges elite experiences whilst
marginalising majority realities.

Why the Silence Persists: Politics of Curriculum Development

The disconnects documented above aren't accidental. They reflect systematic
avoidance of topics curriculum developers deem too sensitive, too controversial, or
too politically dangerous. Understanding why these silences persist requires
examining the politics of curriculum development in Nigeria.
Curriculum content is negotiated terrain. Different stakeholders (government officials,
religious leaders, ethnic associations, parents, civil society organisations) have
interests in what gets taught. In Nigeria's fraught context, addressing ethnic tensions
honestly might provoke accusations of bias from groups who see themselves
negatively portrayed. Examining religious conflicts could trigger charges of favouring
one religion over others. Discussing corruption in depth means critiquing powerful
interests that might retaliate.
The 2025 curriculum reforms introduced by Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Education
represent an attempt to address some concerns, with "Citizenship and Heritage
Studies" merging Nigerian History, Civic Education, and Social Studies (Federal
Ministry of Education, 2025). However, early analyses suggest the reforms focus
more on streamlining subjects and adding digital literacy than on fundamentally
reconceptualising how Social Studies engages with contentious issues.
Curriculum developers thus face incentives for vagueness. Abstract discussions of
national unity offend no one precisely because they engage no actual divisions.
Moral condemnation of corruption sounds appropriately earnest whilst avoiding
analysis that might implicate specific institutions or political arrangements.
Presenting ethnic and religious diversity as benign features of Nigerian society
maintains a fiction all parties can accept, even if students recognise it as fiction.
Teachers reinforce these dynamics. Many lack training to handle controversial
issues and fear community backlash if they address sensitive topics. In contexts
where religious or ethnic violence has occurred, teachers worry that classroom
discussions might inflame tensions (Ekiugbo, 2024). Facing curriculum pressure,
examination requirements, and limited instructional time, they often choose the safer
path of sticking to textbook generalities.

Consequences of the Disconnect

This curriculum-reality gap carries significant costs. Most immediately, it undermines
student engagement. Research on teaching Social Studies in Nigerian schools found
that students remain "rich in social vices" despite years of Social Studies instruction,
partly because the programme hasn't successfully connected with students' lived
experiences (Ekiugbo, 2024). When Social Studies presents sanitised versions of
society bearing little resemblance to students' experiences, many conclude the
subject offers nothing worthwhile.
More seriously, students are denied development of critical thinking capacities they
need as citizens. Democracy requires citizens who can analyse social issues,
evaluate competing claims, and make informed judgements about collective choices.
A 2024 study examining Social Studies and democratic leadership in Nigeria found
that whilst the curriculum promotes problem-solving skills and critical thinking as
goals, challenges in implementation prevent students from developing these
capacities (Unimna & Antigha, 2024).
The disconnect also teaches problematic lessons about education's purpose. When
students observe profound gaps between what they're taught and what they
experience, they may conclude either that education is disconnected from reality or
that authorities deliberately obscure truths. Either conclusion undermines education's
legitimacy. Students learn to see schooling as credentialing exercise rather than
genuine education, as performance rather than understanding.
For Social Studies specifically, the curriculum-reality gap has contributed to the
subject's declining status. Research implementation challenges found that students
demonstrate unwillingness to learn due to inadequate provision of teachers' guides
and the curriculum's failure to address issues students consider important
(Sofadekan, 2020). The subject struggles to attract strong students or qualified
teachers. This creates a vicious cycle. Weak student interest leads to lower-quality
instruction, which further reduces student engagement and subject status.
Perhaps most consequentially, the curriculum's silences about contentious issues
leave students without frameworks for understanding the social forces shaping
Nigeria's trajectory. An Afrobarometer survey found that 91% of young Nigerians see
the country as going in "the wrong direction," yet only 2% approve of the
government's performance on keeping prices stable and only 6% approve on
creating jobs (Mbachu, 2025). Students graduate unable to analyse ethnic
mobilisation, religious conflict, systemic corruption, or economic dysfunction.
Precisely the challenges Nigeria must address to achieve development and stability.

What Students Need Instead: Principles for Reform

Addressing these failures requires more than incremental adjustments. It demands
reconceptualising Social Studies' purpose and content. The following principles
should guide reform:
1. Start from Students' Lived Experiences
Rather than beginning with abstract concepts, curriculum should start from students'
actual social experiences and use these as entry points to broader analysis. This
doesn't mean avoiding difficult content but rather connecting that content to realities
students already navigate.
For ethnic relations, this means examining how students experience ethnicity in their
daily lives. In friendships, family discussions, community boundaries, political
mobilisation. Teachers can build from these experiences to analyse how ethnic
identity is constructed, maintained, and mobilised. Students can investigate specific
ethnic conflicts, understanding their historical roots and contemporary dynamics.
2. Embrace Controversial Issues as Essential Content
Curriculum cannot prepare students for citizenship whilst avoiding the issues most
central to Nigeria's challenges. Ethnic tensions, religious divisions, corruption,
economic dysfunction. These aren't peripheral topics to be mentioned briefly if at all.
They're core content without which Social Studies fails its fundamental mandate.
Research on religious conflicts and education in Nigeria argues that the curriculum of
religious studies should be wholly reviewed to address the persistent religious
conflicts threatening national security (Sulaiman, 2016). This requires pedagogical
courage. Teachers need training and support to facilitate discussions about
controversial topics in ways that promote understanding rather than inflaming
tensions.
3. Develop Analytical Frameworks, Not Just Descriptive Knowledge
Students need tools for analysing social phenomena, not just knowledge about them.
Regarding corruption, for instance, students should understand not just that
corruption exists but how to analyse it. What institutional factors enable or constrain
corrupt practices? How do accountability mechanisms work or fail? What explains
variation in corruption levels across countries or sectors?
Research on youth unemployment found that corruption contributes through
mismanagement of public funds and nepotistic hiring practices (Adeniji, 2024).
Students equipped with analytical frameworks could examine these connections
systematically rather than simply accepting corruption as inevitable reality.
4. Connect Issues Rather Than Fragmenting Them
Current curricula present social issues in discrete, disconnected units. Students
might encounter corruption in one lesson, ethnic conflict in another, economic
challenges in a third, without ever examining connections among them. Reform
should emphasise integration. How does corruption affect economic development?
How do ethnic and religious divisions shape resource allocation? How does
economic marginalisation feed conflict?
This integrated approach better reflects social reality, where issues don't exist in
isolation. It also develops more sophisticated understanding. Students who see
connections across domains can think more systemically about social challenges
and solutions.
5. Include Multiple Perspectives Whilst Developing Critical Evaluation
Engaging controversial issues requires exposure to multiple perspectives. On ethnic
conflicts, students should encounter how different groups understand their
grievances and claims. On economic policy, they should examine competing
approaches. This doesn't mean treating all perspectives as equally valid. Part of
critical thinking involves evaluating claims based on evidence and logic.
Teachers should help students distinguish between respecting others' right to their
perspectives and accepting those perspectives as correct. Students can engage
respectfully with views they ultimately reject after critical examination. This balances
the imperative to acknowledge multiple voices with the goal of developing students'
analytical judgement.
6. Connect Past to Present
Historical understanding illuminates contemporary challenges. Students can't fully
understand ethnic tensions without examining colonialism's role in creating and
hardening ethnic categories. They can't grasp corruption's persistence without
understanding its historical roots in prebendal politics and resource extraction
economies. History isn't separate subject matter but essential context for social
analysis.
The 2025 curriculum reforms reintroduced Nigerian History as compulsory from
Primary 1 to JSS 3 (Federal Ministry of Education, 2025). This provides opportunities
for closer integration between Social Studies and History curricula, with students
seeing historical study not as memorising dates and events but as tool for
understanding how contemporary social arrangements came to be.

Addressing Concerns About Sensitivity

Critics will likely argue that this approach risks inflaming tensions, exposing students
to inappropriate content, or promoting particular political positions. These concerns
merit serious response.
First, regarding inflaming tensions, there's no evidence that honest discussion of
social divisions creates conflict. Indeed, research on Christian-Muslim relations in
Nigeria found that civilian agency, political power-sharing, and inclusive governance
enable peace, suggesting that engagement rather than avoidance promotes stability
(Ossai, 2024). Students already know about ethnic tensions, religious conflicts, and
corruption from family discussions, media, and personal experience. Curriculum
silence doesn't protect them from these realities. It just ensures schools don't help
them understand or address them.
Well-structured pedagogy can engage controversial issues whilst promoting
respectful dialogue. This requires teacher training, appropriate materials, and
administrative support. But the difficulty of doing this well doesn't justify not
attempting it. Democracy requires citizens who can discuss contentious issues
without resorting to violence or demonisation. Schools must help develop this
capacity.
Second, regarding age-appropriateness, curriculum can engage serious issues in
developmentally suitable ways. Younger students can examine family and
community conflicts, learning frameworks for understanding disagreement and
working towards resolution. Older students can apply these frameworks to more
complex social issues. The key is progression. Building analytical capacities
gradually rather than either overwhelming young students with complexity or
underestimating adolescents' ability to grapple with sophisticated content.
Third, regarding accusations of bias, critics from different positions will likely perceive
any honest examination of controversial issues as biased. The response cannot be
continued avoidance. Instead, curriculum should be transparent about its
pedagogical aims: developing students' capacities for critical analysis of social
issues. This doesn't require neutrality on questions of fact. Corruption does exist,
ethnic conflicts have occurred, economic policies have had particular consequences.
But it does require presenting multiple perspectives on contested questions and
helping students develop their own informed judgements.
Conclusion
The disconnect between Nigerian Social Studies curriculum and students' lived
realities represents more than pedagogical failure. It reflects abdication of the
subject's fundamental responsibility: preparing students for informed citizenship in
their actual society, not some sanitised fictional version of it.
Nigerian students live in a country where between 1999 and 2021, ethnic conflicts
caused 18,132 fatalities, religious conflicts caused 29,957 fatalities, and over 80
million youths remain unemployed in 2024 (Ikelegbe & Umukoro, 2023; Alao-Akala,
2025). These aren't peripheral issues but core features of contemporary Nigerian
social reality. Yet their Social Studies curriculum systematically avoids engaging
these topics, offering instead abstract discussions of national unity, vague appeals
for tolerance, and moral condemnations that provide no analytical purchase on
persistent problems.
The consequences extend far beyond classroom boredom or poor examination
performance. Students denied tools for understanding their social world cannot
become the informed, critically-thinking citizens democracy requires. Research
shows that 91% of young Nigerians see the country going in "the wrong direction,"
yet their Social Studies education hasn't equipped them to analyse why or imagine
alternatives (Mbachu, 2025). They cannot participate meaningfully in debates about
their society's direction. They cannot work towards better alternatives. The
curriculum's silences thus have profound political implications, producing citizens
unprepared for the challenges facing their nation.
Reform is both necessary and possible. The 2025 curriculum reforms represent a
starting point, reintroducing Nigerian History and creating opportunities for
integration (Federal Ministry of Education, 2025). However, meaningful change
requires going further. Developing courage to engage honestly with controversial
issues, investing in teacher training and curriculum development, and defending the
value of critical social analysis against those who prefer comfortable silences.
The alternative, continued evasion, is unsustainable. Each year, thousands of
students pass through Social Studies classes learning sanitised versions of Nigerian
society that bear little resemblance to their lived experiences. They learn that
education is disconnected from reality, that schools avoid rather than engage
important questions, that the subject meant to help them understand their social
world offers nothing useful for that purpose.
Nigeria needs citizens equipped to understand and address the country's profound
challenges. Social Studies, reformed to centre Nigerian realities rather than evade
them, could contribute significantly to developing such citizens. The current
curriculum cannot. The choice facing educational authorities is whether to continue
curriculum of comfortable avoidance or to embrace the riskier but ultimately more
responsible path of honest engagement with the society students actually inhabit.

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