History reintroduced in basic education 13-yrs after being abolished

History has been reintroduced as a stand-alone subject in the basic education curriculum by the federal government, 13 years after it was abolished.

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who spoke at the flag-off ceremony of the reintroduction of the teaching of history and training of history teachers at basic education level in Abuja on Thursday, November 23, said 3,700 History teachers have been shortlisted for the first round of training for enhanced teaching of the subject.

Adamu was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah at the event attended by Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar and other key stakeholders in the education sector, also said that national cohesion is being threatened with the country retreating into primordial sentiments because of lack of knowledge of the evolution of Nigeria following the removal of History from the basic education curriculum.

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

“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.”