Towards Articulating Meaning and Provisions for 21st Century Skills in Nigerian Secondary Schools- A Secondary Study

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VIII, August 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

 Towards Articulating Meaning and Provisions for 21st Century Skills in Nigerian Secondary Schools- A Secondary Study

 Oluwatoyin Adelakun-Adeyemo
Department of Computer Science, Bingham University, Nigeria

Abstract– 21st century skills are critical competencies and attitudes that individuals must have to be productive citizens in the 21st century knowledge economy. It is therefore critical to ensure that these skills are being taught and learnt in schools to prepare young people for life and work as successful citizens. Three research questions are posed and a desktop study is conducted to articulate a contextual meaning for 21st century skills, analyse the policy provisions and required supported needed to ensure teaching and learning of 21st century skills in Nigerian secondary schools. An extensive literature review is conducted to draw comparison and synthesize meaning and articulate the state of practice in 21st century teaching a learning standards. In answering the research questions, clear requirements for ensuring that teaching and learning of 21st century skills is happening in schools have been documented with reference to important literature. The conclusion is that the Nigerian education policy and curriculum falls short of global and regional standards of provisions in response to the needs of 21st century workforce and the recommendation is an urgent revision of the current curriculum to make explicit recognition of and provisions for teaching and learning of 21st century skills in Nigerian secondary schools. Particularly, it is recommended that the curriculum developers create a ‘learner exit profile’ to serve as the vision of graduates that should be produced by a 21st century skills sensitive curriculum.

Keywords— 21st Century skills, P21, Nigeria Education Policy, Secondary School Education, Secondary school curriculum

I. INTRODUCTION

Previous research has highlighted that the teaching of 21st century employability skills in Nigerian tertiary institutions is “low” [1], [2]. [3] also reported that secondary school teachers’ level of awareness of 21st century skills was “just moderate” inferring that they could not transfer such skills to their students. The importance and impact of possessing the 21st century skills create a need to research the requirements for ensuring that it becomes integrated into the education system at all levels of learning.

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