As education systems around the world evolve with technological advancements, an education expert, Ayoola Akinyeye, has called for deeper reforms to embed Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Nigeria’s education curriculum.

In a recent interview with journalists in Lagos, Mrs Akinyeye, a Lagos-based school owner, emphasised the need to integrate AI into the curriculum to better prepare students for a technology-driven future.

She urged Nigerian educators and policymakers to learn from countries that have successfully integrated AI into their education systems, like China, Finland, and the United Arab Emirates.

This call for reforms cames weeks after the federal government announced a nationwide AI training initiative for 6,000 senior secondary school teachers.

Reflecting on the limitations of Nigeria’s current curriculum, Mrs Akinyeye noted that many schools use a mix of the Nigerian and British curricula.

She, however, stressed that mere adoption without localisation can limit the relevance and impact of education on students.

Mrs Akinyeye explained that her school had begun to adopt a hybrid approach — combining the depth of the British curriculum with the scope of the Nigerian system — while ensuring all content is contextualised for local realities.

“In primary school, we adopt the British curriculum for English because it has a stronger scheme of work. But we contextualise the stories and methods to reflect our environment,” she said.

“The Nigerian maths curriculum is quite rigorous. So, we’re keeping that but borrowing advanced methodologies from the UK to deepen students’ understanding.”

According to her, the major flaw in the Nigerian curriculum is its lack of depth, explaining that the international systems often cover fewer topics but with more exploration.

“What Nigeria lacks in depth, we have in scope,” she noted, suggesting that the best approach is to give the Nigerian curriculum the depth of the British’s.