Not Every Subject Is Necessary: Rethinking the School Curriculum.

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From preschool all the way to university, we are given a long list of courses and subjects to study. And while some of them are really important and make a lot of sense, I honestly believe that not all the courses we’re made to learn are necessary. There are some that I personally feel should be removed from the curriculum, or at the very least, not made compulsory for everyone.

Take French, for example. I studied French right from my first year in junior secondary school until I finished my junior secondary school. And to be very honest, I still can’t speak a single proper sentence in French today. The sad part is that I didn’t fail the subject in school. In fact, I passed it. But passing the exam and actually understanding the language are two completely different things. The way French was taught in school was more about cramming and preparing for exams rather than learning how to actually speak and use the language in real life.

What’s the point of spending years learning a subject that ends up being completely useless to you later on? Except someone is planning to live or work in a French-speaking country, there’s really no urgent reason for everyone to go through the stress of learning it—especially when the teaching itself is not even helping. I personally feel that if someone has a genuine interest in learning French, they can go ahead and learn it on their own terms, maybe through online lessons or by attending private classes. Making it a compulsory subject for all students just doesn’t seem necessary.

Another example is Chinese. When I got to senior secondary school, my school decided to introduce Chinese as a subject. At first, it sounded like a great idea. But it quickly became frustrating. The school brought in a teacher who, to be honest, didn’t even seem like someone qualified to teach the language. He was an Igbo man who had probably spent a few months in China and came back with the confidence that he could teach the language. Meanwhile, it was clear that he himself was still learning. Yet, we were forced to sit through his classes as if it were the most important subject in the world.

Till today, I can’t remember anything meaningful from those Chinese classes. I’m not trying to say that languages like French or Chinese aren’t valuable. Of course, they are. But what I’m saying is that they shouldn't be made compulsory for everyone—especially when most students will never use them in real life, and the quality of the teaching isn’t even encouraging.

In the end, i believe not every subject we’re taught in school actually adds value to our lives. Some are just there because the system says they have to be. But then it’s time we rethink that. If a subject isn’t being taught well, and if it won’t be useful to the majority of students later in life, then maybe it’s better left as an optional course rather than something every single student is forced to take. That way, those who are genuinely interested can still pursue it, while others can focus on what really matters to them.

Thanks for reading.