Thirteen years after it was abolished, Federal Government, yesterday, formally announced the return of history as a stand-alone subject in the country’s basic education curriculum.
Also, 3,700 history teachers have been shortlisted for the first round of training for enhanced teaching of the subject.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, speaking at the reintroduction ceremony, lamented that national cohesion was threatened, following removal of the subject from the curriculum.
He said: “History used to be one of the foundational subjects taught in our classroom. But for inexplicable reasons, the stream of teaching and learning was abolished. 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.
“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, invariably eroding the knowledge of the evolution of Nigeria as a country.”
Adamu was represented by Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah, at the event attended by Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, and other key stakeholders in the education sector.
