The Federal Government (FG) has formally announced the reintroduction of History in the country’s basic education curriculum, 13 years after its removal from the curriculums of primary and secondary school education in the 2009/2010 academic session. This was made known on Thursday at the flag-off ceremony of the subject’s reintroduction by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah.
He said, “History was 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 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 retreated into our primordial sentiments”.
He said the absence of the subject in the basic education curriculum has led to a decline in moral values, disconnect from the past, and loss of civic rules.
According to reports, about 3,700 History teachers selected from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are set to commence the first round of training in order to improve their mastery of the subject.