The Federal Government has announced plans to reintroduce History in the Basic Education curriculum.
History was removed from the school curriculum during the 2009/2010 session, but the plan to reintroduce the subject was first announced in 2018.
Speaking at an event in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said 3,700 History teachers had been shortlisted for the first round of training ahead of the reintroduction of the subject in schools.
Adamu, who was represented at the event by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah, expressed regret at the removal of the subject from the education curriculum.
He said: “History used to be one of the foundational subjects taught in our classrooms, but for some inexplicable reasons, the steam 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.”
