Thirteen years after it was abolished, the Federal Government used the reintroduction of History as a standalone subject in the basic education curriculum in Nigeria.
For the first round of training for enhanced teaching of the subject, 3,700 History teachers have been shortlisted across the country.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, announced this at the kick-off ceremony of the reintroduction of the teaching of History and training of teachers for the subject at the basic education level yesterday in Abuja.
The minister said national cohesion was being threatened with the country retreating into primordial sentiments because of a lack of knowledge about the evolution of Nigeria following the removal of History from the basic education curriculum.
Adamu was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah, at the event attended by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, and other key stakeholders in the Education sector.
Commenting on the new development, 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 we 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.”
