Stakeholders Reject WAEC’s 2026 Curriculum Push, Demand Delay Till 2028

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) and other groups representing parents, teachers, and students have expressed disappointment with the Federal Ministry of Education’s statement on the new curriculum and the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

In a press statement, signed by the group’s National Mobilisation Officer, Adaramoye Lenin, and Representative, Concerned Parents, Olanrewaju Akinola, the group said the ministry’s clarification on subject selection under the Senior Secondary School Curriculum failed to address the fundamental issue at the center of the controversy.

The ministry had stated that there is no restriction on the selection of any approved subject within the curriculum.

But ERC argued that this would lead to students being forced to take subjects they have not been taught since SSS 1.

“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,” the statement said.

ERC also commended the House of Representatives for passing a resolution asking the ministry to suspend the plan to conduct the 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.

Aligning with our argument and what is common sense, the House in the resolution stated, “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”

It noted that 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.

The group described the ministry’s plan as “irrational” and “unjust”, saying it would leave students disadvantaged and shortchanged.

ERC called 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.

“ 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,” the statement said.