FG REINSTATES HISTORY INSTRUCTION IN THE CORE CURRICULUM AFTER 13 YEARS

Malam Adamu Adamu

Thirteen years after it was abolished, the Federal Government of Nigeria on Thursday formally announced the return of history as a stand-alone topic in the country's basic education curriculum.

Additionally, 3,700 history instructors have been chosen to participate in the first round of training for improved instruction in the subject.

Speaking at the flag-off ceremony for the reinstatement of the teaching of history and the preparation of history teachers at the basic education level, Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu bemoaned that the national cohesion was in danger due to the country reverting to primitive sentiments due to ignorance of Nigeria's history as a result of history being removed from the basic education curriculum.

The Honorable Minister of State for Education, who was Adamu's representative, Wishing Nanah Opiah well at the occasion. It should be noted that beginning with the academic year 2009–2010, history was dropped from the primary and secondary education curricula.

The current Minister of Education, however, ordered the subject's reinstatement in 2019, in response to the popular sentiment at the time that a nation still developing and coping with difficulties of social cohesion, political stability, and economic progress could not afford to forget its past.

While speaking further at the flag-off, Adamu said: *History used to be one of the foundational subjects taught in our classroom but for some inexplicable reasons, the steam of teaching and leaming 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 cvic values, and disconnect from the past."