A leading education expert, Mrs Ayoola Akinyele has proposed the development of an AI-powered curriculum to revolutionise Nigeria’s education system. Akinyele, who is the director of Schools at Chrisland Schools, Lagos, noted that integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the curriculum would equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in a rapidly changing technological landscape.
She emphasised the need to integrate AI into the curriculum to better prepare students for a technology-driven future. The proposed curriculum aims to introduce AI-related topics, such as machine learning, data science, and coding, to students from an early age. This would enable them to develop critical thinking, problemsolving, and creativity skills, making them more competitive in the global job market.
This call comes weeks after the federal government announced a nationwide AI training initiative for 6,000 senior secondary school teachers. Launched by the Ministry of Education through the National Senior Secondary Education Commission, the programme, which was flagged off in February in Abuja, aims to enhance teaching methods and better equip 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. Akinyele, however, stressed that mere adoption without localisation can limit the relevance and impact of education on students.
She explained that Chrisland has 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. 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.
To bridge these gaps, Mrs Akinyeye revealed plans to develop a custom curriculum known as the “Chrisland Curriculum Plus”, which will be AI-driven and technology-centric.
