SS1 New National Curriculum 2026/2027: Core Subjects, Electives, Trades & PDF Release Status

SS1 is where the revised national curriculum moves from Basic Education into a much more deliberate subject-combination model. The approved structure does not tell every Senior Secondary student to take every subject on the list. It separates core requirements from Science, Humanities and Business options and adds a trade component.

There is also a release-status issue that schools should know before September 2026. NERDC announced phased curriculum implementation from September 2025, but the actual revised files were released progressively rather than as one complete national pack. We began seeing the SS1 entry-class release become substantially more usable in early 2026, with missing subject files continuing to appear in waves through April–June.

Even now, the release is not perfectly complete. When we checked NERDC’s current SSS1 Humanities portal in August 2026, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, French, Arabic, Visual Arts and Music were listed, but their “Click to View” text did not resolve as active curriculum links on the page, while subjects such as Nigerian History, Government, CRS, Islamic Studies, Literature-in-English, Home Management and Catering Craft had active links.

Download centre: SS1 New National Curriculum PDFs currently available.

How the approved SS1 structure works

NERDC’s September 2025 approved-subject notice groups the Senior Secondary offering as follows.

Five core and compulsory requirements

• English Language
• General Mathematics
• Citizenship and Heritage Studies
• Digital Technologies
• One Trade Subject

Science offering

Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Agriculture, Further Mathematics, Physical Education, Health Education, Foods & Nutrition, Geography and Technical Drawing.

Humanities offering

Nigerian History, Government, Christian Religious Studies, Islamic Studies, one Nigerian Language, French, Arabic, Visual Arts, Music, Literature in English, Home Management and Catering Craft.

Business offering

Accounting, Commerce, Marketing and Economics.

Trade options

• Solar Photovoltaic Installation and Maintenance
• Fashion Design and Garment Making
• Livestock Farming
• Beauty and Cosmetology
• Computer Hardware and GSM Repairs
• Horticulture and Crop Production

Do not turn the SS1 approved list into one giant timetable

The point of the field structure is purposeful subject selection. A Science learner, Humanities learner and Business learner should not all leave school with identical subject combinations simply because every subject appears on the national offering.

Schools need to consider the learner’s pathway, staffing, laboratories, workshops, equipment and the trade the school can teach properly. The revised curriculum’s emphasis on practical, technological, vocational and entrepreneurial competence makes “we have the subject on paper” a weak standard for implementation.

The clearest example of the release gap: SSS1 language subjects

As checked on 13 August 2026, NERDC’s SSS1 Humanities page displayed Hausa Language, Igbo Language, Yoruba Language, French, Arabic, Visual Arts and Music in the subject list. However, unlike several other Humanities subjects on the same page, those entries did not have active linked curriculum pages in the web listing.

This is exactly why we distinguish between:

• a subject being officially approved;
• a subject appearing on an official portal page;
• and the actual revised curriculum file being released and accessible.

For school planning, those are three different things.

What September 2026 means for SS1

NERDC’s approved-subject notice says implementation commences at the beginning of each three-year education cycle and names SS1 alongside Primary 1, Primary 4 and JSS1. The official announcement targeted September 2025, but the practical document rollout lagged.

For schools that could not responsibly implement a new SS1 programme without the curriculum files, the 2026/2027 session is therefore a major practical reset point. That is an observation about readiness, not a claim that NERDC formally changed the national commencement date.

What about SS2 and SS3?

NERDC’s current Senior Secondary curriculum home now exposes class pages for SS1, SS2 and SS3. That does not automatically mean every school should switch all three classes simultaneously. The September 2025 approved-subject notice frames implementation around the beginning of each three-year education circle, with SS1 as the entry class.

The natural cohort logic is that the SS1 group progresses into SS2 and then SS3. Because the detailed Basic Education implementation strategy does not itself govern the Senior Secondary annual sequence, schools should verify current FME/NERDC direction rather than treating a third-party “SS2 new scheme” page as proof of the implementation year.

Download the SS1 curriculum files currently available

👉 Open the SS1 New National Curriculum download page

Our goal is to keep that page useful as the release fills out. If a listed subject does not yet have a usable new-curriculum file, it should not be silently replaced with the old curriculum.

Need weekly SS1 schemes?

our currently has 28 SS1 Scheme of Work resources in the present release. That page deliberately distinguishes our available scheme catalogue from the wider official subject offering, so a school can browse what is ready without assuming our 28 schemes are the entire national list.

SS1 curriculum FAQ

Are Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and French approved for Senior Secondary School?

Yes, they appear in the approved Humanities offering. The separate question is whether the current revised SS1 curriculum file is actually active and downloadable on the new portal.

Is Digital Technologies optional?

No. The approved notice places Digital Technologies in the five core and compulsory requirements.

Where can I verify current SS1 releases?

Use the NERDC New Revised Senior Secondary Curriculum home. You can also inspect the current SSS1 Humanities listing. For the national rollout context, read our 2026/2027 implementation guide.