Education: Towaeds NERDC Nomenclature Clarification of CRS and IS or CRS/IRS

By Prof Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies

The National Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) recommends specific nomenclature for subjects in schools. For Computer Studies, the approved nomenclature according to NERDC is Computer Studies (CS) and Information Technology (IT) or Computer Science (CS) in some contexts for more advanced or specific studies.

Given the common usage,
CS often stands for Computer Science or Computer Studies, which aligns with NERDC’s subject categorization. Thus, IS could refer to Information Systems or Information Science, which might also fit within the broader context of computer-related studies.
As such, there is no need to have a mix-up for (IS) or (CS).

However, the recent distinction between Christian Religions Studies (CRS) and Islamic Religions Studies (IRS) isn’t directly addressed within the context on what these abbreviations stand for in the curriculum.

One is surprised to find CRS and IS, instead of CRS and IRS or CS and IS as abbreviations within the NERDC framework, which is quite inconsistent. It would be best to remain consistent with the abbreviation designations as in the former curriculum without any alterations.

For clarity and alignment with educational standards, sticking to Computer Studies as CS and Christian Religions Studies as CRS and Islamic Religions Studies as IRS and not IS would be ensuring consistency with NERDC’s guidelines and would be the most advisable and accurate. It wasn’t so as – IR, in the former curriculum. Or is the IR a typographical error?!

Professor Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies is a Public Commentator and a Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.