Assessment of the Language Arts Curricula in the Nigerian Basic Education Program

Overload of the Basic Education curriculum in Nigeria led to the reduction from earlier 11 subjects to seven for Lower Basic, eight for Middle Basic, and nine for Upper Basic. Languages may not be exempt as it may affect performance adversely. For this study, the two national languages (English language and French) as well as Yoruba (the language of the Southwestern States) were examined. The curricula content of the three compulsory languages was examined based on (except for Yoruba) globally accepted objectives of language learning. Content analysis showed curriculum overload of different dimensions at the levels of the three languages.