Federal government has formally announced the reintroduction of History as a stand alone subject in the basic education curriculum in Nigeria 13 years after it was removed.
A total of 3,700 History teachers have also been shortlisted for the first round of training for enhanced teaching of the subject.
The minister of education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who spoke at the flag-off ceremony of the reintroduction of teaching of History and training of History teachers at basic education level in Abuja on Thursday, lamented that the national cohesion was being threatened with the country retreating into primordial sentiments because of lack of knowledge of the evolution of Nigeria following the removal of the subject.
Adamu was represented by the minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah said History used to be one of the foundational subjects taught in the classroom.
It would be recalled that History was removed from primary and secondary education curriculums from the 2009/2010 academic session.
However, following general reactions, the current minister of education, ordered the reintroduction of the subject in 2019.
The minister said, “As a result, history was subsequently expunged from the list of subject combinations 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.
“The immediate implication of this was that we lost ideas even of our recent past, and we scarcely saw ourselves as one nation and gradually began retreating into our primordial sentiments,” he said.
