How to become a remote curriculum developer from Nigeria
If you've ever rewritten a scheme of work because the textbook skipped a step your SS1 students needed, you've done a small piece of curriculum development. The job is doing that on purpose and at scale: deciding the order of topics for a whole year, writing lessons another teacher can pick up and teach tomorrow, and building the quizzes that show whether it worked.
It rewards classroom experience more than almost any other remote education job. Clients want people who know what actually happens in a lesson. The honest part: in Nigeria, advertised curriculum roles at schools pay modestly (a Lagos school's curriculum developer ad in October 2026 offered ₦100,000 to ₦150,000 a month), and the better-paid remote work usually comes through publishers, edtech companies and education programmes that hire writers by project.
Updated October 2026 by the WorkRemote careers team
- Best background
- Classroom teaching, ideally 3+ years in your subject
- Standards to know
- UK National Curriculum, Common Core, NGSS, IGCSE, NERDC
- Main outputs
- Scope and sequence, lesson plans, teacher guides, assessments
- Typical tools
- Google Docs, Word, Canva, an LMS, sometimes Articulate Rise
- Lagos school ad (Oct 2026)
- ₦100,000-₦150,000 a month
- How remote work comes
- Project contracts with publishers, edtech and NGOs
On this page
What a remote curriculum developer does
Curriculum developers work backwards from the end. First: what should a learner know and be able to do by the end of the year, according to the standard the client follows? Then the order of units (the scope and sequence), then each unit's lessons, activities and resources, then the assessments that check progress.
The deliverables are documents other people use: a teacher guide with timings and questions to ask, a student workbook, a set of slides, a unit test with a mark scheme. Some clients want it built into an LMS; many just want clean Google Docs.
A day in the role
- Map a standard (for example Common Core Grade 6 maths or KS3 science) into a year-long scope and sequence
- Write lesson plans with objectives, timings, activities, differentiation and exit tickets
- Draft teacher guides that a less experienced teacher can follow word for word if needed
- Write assessment items and mark schemes at the right difficulty for the level
- Check reading level and vocabulary for the age group, and adapt examples for the client's country
- Respond to editor and reviewer comments in Google Docs, often in two or three rounds
- Source or brief images and diagrams, checking licences before anything is used
Skills you need
Core skills
- Backward design
Starting from outcomes and assessments, then planning lessons (the Understanding by Design approach), is how most publishers and edtech teams expect you to work.
- Standards alignment
Clients pay for content that matches their standard exactly. You need to read a code like CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.A.3 or a NERDC theme and write to it.
- Lesson and unit writing
Clear objectives, realistic timings and activities that work with 40 pupils as well as 15.
- Assessment design
Questions at the right level, rubrics and mark schemes that two teachers would apply the same way.
- Subject depth
Most curriculum contracts are subject-specific. A chemistry teacher writes chemistry, not "general science".
- Writing for different contexts
A lesson for a Lagos private school, a rural Kano primary school and a US homeschool family need different examples, resources and language.
- Differentiation
Teacher guides are expected to show how to support struggling learners and stretch fast ones.
Soft skills
- Taking editorial feedback
Your drafts will be marked up heavily. Developers who revise quickly and without fuss get the next contract.
- Meeting deadlines
Publishing and edtech schedules are tight, and one late unit holds up designers and reviewers.
- Consistency
Twenty lessons need the same structure, tone and formatting. Style guides exist for this; follow them.
Tools you'll use
Google Docs and Sheets
Where most curriculum is drafted, reviewed and tracked
Microsoft Word with tracked changes
Publishers still often work this way
Canva or Google Slides
Student-facing slides and worksheets
Google Classroom, Moodle or Canvas
When the client wants lessons loaded into an LMS
Articulate Rise
Occasionally used by edtech and NGO clients for self-paced versions
Readability checkers (Hemingway, Flesch-Kincaid in Word)
To keep texts at the right reading level
Notion, Trello or Asana
Tracking units and review rounds on larger projects
Where to learn
- National curriculum in England (key stages 1 to 4) (opens in a new tab)
Department for Education, GOV.UK Free
Programmes of study for every subject. Essential if you want to write for UK schools, tutoring firms or publishers.
- Common Core State Standards (ELA and maths) (opens in a new tab)
Common Core State Standards Initiative Free PDFs
The standard most US curriculum projects in English and maths refer to.
- Next Generation Science Standards (opens in a new tab)
NGSS Free to read online
US K-12 science standards built on three dimensions: practices, crosscutting concepts and core ideas. Know them if you write science.
- Nigerian curricula (Basic Education and Senior Secondary) (opens in a new tab)
NERDC Free to view on the NERDC site
The revised Basic Education Curriculum, Senior Secondary curriculum and newer frameworks such as the National Reading Framework. Useful for local edtech and NGO work.
- Cambridge IGCSE subject pages (opens in a new tab)
Cambridge International Syllabuses on each subject page
Many Nigerian private schools teach IGCSE, so you may already know a syllabus that international clients want.
Career path
How remote curriculum developers usually move up, with the years it tends to take, and where people move sideways.
- Entry
Curriculum writer or content writer (education)
0-2
Writing lessons or questions to someone else's plan; often freelance or part-time alongside teaching
- Mid-level
Curriculum developer
2-5
Owns units or whole courses, aligns to standards, works with editors and designers
- Senior
Senior curriculum developer or subject lead
5-8
Sets the scope and sequence for a subject and reviews other writers
- Lead
Curriculum manager or head of academics
8+
Runs curriculum for an edtech company, school group or programme
Sideways moves
Instructional designer or assessment specialist · 3+
Moves into corporate e-learning, or into exam and test writing
Getting hired from Nigeria
Start with writing samples, not applications. Prepare three pieces in your subject:
- A unit plan with a scope and sequence for 4-6 lessons, mapped to named standards.
- One complete lesson with teacher notes, timings, an activity, differentiation and an exit ticket.
- A short assessment with a mark scheme or rubric.
Make one set for an international standard (UK National Curriculum, Common Core or IGCSE) and, if you want local work, one for the NERDC curriculum. Put them in a simple portfolio (a Google Drive folder with view-only links is fine) and link it on your CV and LinkedIn.
Where the work comes from:
- Publishers and edtech companies that hire subject writers per unit or per lesson, often through LinkedIn posts and education job boards.
- Education programmes and NGOs in Nigeria that need teacher guides, structured lessons and reading materials, usually as consultancies with a fixed fee.
- Schools and school groups in Lagos and Abuja hiring curriculum staff, like the Orisumbare school role on MyJobMag. Pay is modest, but it builds the track record remote clients ask about.
TRCN registration and a B.Ed or PGDE strengthen your profile, especially with Nigerian clients. Many remote clients work in UK or EU hours, which are close to Lagos time; US clients mean late afternoons and evenings. Foreign clients tend to pay by Payoneer or Wise, or straight into a domiciliary account; agree the rate per lesson or per unit, and the number of revision rounds, before you start.
Pitfalls to avoid
- Sending a CV with no writing samples. Curriculum clients hire on samples.
- Copying images, diagrams or past-paper questions without permission. Publishers check licences.
- Writing lessons that only work in a well-resourced classroom when the client serves low-resource schools, or the reverse
- Agreeing a per-unit fee without fixing how many revision rounds it includes
- Claiming to know Common Core or NGSS after skimming them. Interviewers ask about specific standards.
- Doing an unpaid "test unit" that's really a full deliverable. A fair test is short.
Questions people ask
Can a Nigerian teacher become a remote curriculum developer?
Yes, and teaching experience is the most useful background for it. You'll need writing samples aligned to the standards your target clients use, and most people start with part-time or project work alongside teaching.
How much does a curriculum developer earn in Nigeria?
Advertised school roles can be low: an October 2026 Lagos ad offered ₦100,000 to ₦150,000 a month. In the US, the BLS puts the median for instructional coordinators, the closest category, at $77,440 (May 2025). Remote curriculum contracts are usually priced per lesson or per unit, and we found no published survey of those rates for Nigerian writers, so we leave the figure out.
Do I need a master's degree to become a curriculum developer?
Not for most freelance and edtech work, where samples and subject knowledge matter more. The BLS lists a master's as typical for US instructional coordinators, and Nigerian colleges of education ask for one for curriculum lecturer posts.
What's the difference between a curriculum developer and an instructional designer?
Curriculum developers mostly plan school or course content: sequence, lessons, teacher guides and assessments. Instructional designers usually build training for adults at work, often as e-learning, and spend more time in authoring tools.
Which curriculum should I learn for international work?
The one closest to what you already teach. IGCSE and the UK National Curriculum are natural for teachers from Nigerian private schools; Common Core and NGSS for US clients.
Is TRCN registration needed for curriculum work?
It's not usually required by foreign clients, but Nigerian schools and programmes often ask for it, and it shows you're a qualified teacher.
Sources
- MyJobMag: Curriculum developer jobs in Nigeria (accessed October 2026)
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Instructional Coordinators (accessed October 2026)
- GOV.UK: National curriculum (accessed October 2026)
- Common Core State Standards Initiative (accessed October 2026)
- Next Generation Science Standards (accessed October 2026)
- NERDC: Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (accessed October 2026)
Updated October 2026 by the WorkRemote careers team
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