Designing a Media Literacy Curriculum for Senior Secondary Schools in Ogun State

Media literacy is an urgent educational need in Nigeria's rapidly digitalising information landscape, and designing a dedicated media literacy curriculum for secondary schools in Ogun State addresses both citizenship education gaps and the growing challenges of misinformation among youth. This study designed a media literacy curriculum for integration into the Social Studies and Civic Education pathway in Senior Secondary Schools in Ogun State, South West Nigeria. A professional curriculum design methodology was employed, drawing on a landscape analysis of media literacy curricula from UNESCO, Kenya, and South Africa, assessment of media literacy learning gaps through focus groups with 40 SS2 and SS3 students from six schools in Abeokuta and Sagamu, and structured consultations with 12 media literacy educators and 8 Social Studies curriculum specialists. The student focus groups confirmed that 83.0 percent could not identify basic features of misinformation, and 71.0 percent had shared at least one piece of unverified information on social media. The designed curriculum covers eight units over one school term, including information source analysis, social media literacy, advertisement deconstruction, news verification skills, digital rights, and ethical content creation. Assessment tools and teacher guides are developed for each unit. Expert review by nine media literacy and curriculum specialists confirmed the curriculum's scope and teachability. The study recommends the curriculum be formally submitted to the NERDC for consideration in the next national Social Studies curriculum revision cycle.

Keywords: media literacy curriculum, social media, secondary school, Ogun State, civic education