F.G Reintroduces History To Basic Schooling

The Federal Government has formally announced the reintroduction of history as a stand alone subject in basic education curriculum in Nigeria 13 years after its abolition.

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday at the inauguration ceremony of the reintroduction of teaching of history and training of history teachers at basic education level.

Adamu was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Mr Goodluck Opiah.

He expressed worry with the way the national cohesion was being threatened with the country retreating into primodal sentiments as a result of lack of knowledge of the evolution of Nigeria following the removal of history from the basic education curriculum.

He said that a total of 3,700 history teachers had been shortlisted for the first round of training for enhanced teaching of the subject.

History was removed from primary and secondary education curriculums from the 2009/2010 academic session.

However the minister ordered the reintroduction of the subject in 2019.

“History used to be one of the foundational subjects taught in our classroom but for some inexplicable reasons, the steam of teaching and learning was abolished.

“As a result, history was subsequently expunged from the list of subject combination our students could offer in both external and internal examinations compared to the subjects that were made compulsory at basic and secondary levels in Nigeria.

“This single act no doubt relegated and eroded the knowledge and information that learners could otherwise have been exposed to. It was a monumental mistake and have already started seeing its negative consequences

“The loss created by the absence of this subject has led to a fall in moral values, erosion of civic values, and disconnect from the past.

“More worrisome was the neglect of the teaching of this subject at basic and post basic levels of education which invariably eroded the knowledge of the evolution of Nigeria as a country,” he said.

The minister added that the focus of the re-introduction was the training and retraining of teachers in order to enhance their capacity development would lead to the mastery of the subject.

He said teachers would be provided with the requisite skills needed to teach the subject.