The decision of the Lagos State Government to reintroduce the teaching of history in its schools should spur a great momentum in the national move towards restoring the subject to its pride of place in the educational curriculum as an essential ingredient in the development process. In a memo titled, Re: Introduction of History in Lagos State Schools, the state’s Ministry of Education said it was set to implement the reintroduction of the subject in its secondary schools. This complements moves by the Federal Government and the Senate in this direction. The initiative is long overdue; the various governments should move very quickly and roll out strategies to actualize it.

Restoring the teaching of history should be a top national priority to correct its disastrous neglect for decades. Tragically, history, which was once a compulsory subject up till the first three years of secondary schooling in Nigeria, was first made optional, and fatally, later dropped and fused with others as part of the ‘social studies’ subject. This was monumental short-sightedness, especially for the world’s largest Black population.

The American Historical Association anchors the utility of history on its efficacy in providing evidence on how societies function, and how “the past causes the present, and so the future.” Since the late 1980s, generations of Nigerians have passed through the educational system – primary, secondary, and tertiary – ignorant of their past. At the university, apart from history majors, Nigeria’s, Africa’s, and world history is often reduced to a module in the general studies course.

It is important to change this immediately as history keeps repeating itself tragically in many aspects of Nigerian life, a sad reflection of the poor state of historical knowledge among Nigerians. The subject was removed from the teaching curriculum by the Federal Government during the 2009/2010 academic session. Before then, history was no longer regarded as a core subject in schools, but instead buried among social studies lessons.

Officials gave unconvincing reasons to justify the removal of the subject, including the belief that students shunned the subject; only a few jobs were available for history graduates, and that there is a dearth of history teachers. Incensed, a Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, thundered, “Those who expunged such a discipline from our schools deserve to be expunged from history altogether.”

Commendably, the regime of the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has set out to restore history to the primary and secondary schools’ curriculum. It should move with greater speed. The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, gave the first hint of change in 2016, declaring, “Somebody, who doesn’t know his history is even worse than dead. So, this government is going to bring back history.”

In 2019, the ministry directed all basic and secondary schools across the country to immediately implement the teaching of history as a standalone subject from the 2020/2021 session. This, however, is yet to be fully complied with. The ministry had earlier stated that the return of history to the curriculum would be preceded by the training of all primary school teachers to deliver digital literacy.

“By the next academic calendar, history will be taught as a standalone subject… It is with immediate implementation. So, definitely for the next academic year, everybody will fall in line because we have already articulated the curriculum and the examination should be done along those lines,” it said.

In 2017, the Nigeria Education Research and Development Council announced that it was set to reintroduce history as a subject, beginning from the 2018/2019 academic session. The NERDC stated that the curriculum would be standalone that would be taught from primary one to JSS III after the National Council on Education had approved its reintroduction. In 2018, the Federal Government unveiled a new curriculum for the teaching of the subject in basic schools across the country. This was approved at the 63rd meeting of the NCE in June 2017. The Senate is also working on bill to make history compulsory in schools.

Unfortunately, full implementation of the ministry’s directive did not start until Lagos State took the lead by announcing its return to its own schools, close to five years after the new curriculum was unveiled. This is not good enough. The recurring problem of poor or non-implementation of policies should not be allowed to truncate this move.

Buhari and Adamu have only nine months left; they should leave this as an enduring legacy. Other countries do not joke with history; accordingly, its teaching in early school years is treated as important as science and mathematics. The United Kingdom, the United States, France, Australia, Japan, and China make it compulsory at least up to the first three years of secondary education. South Africa has commenced moves to extend mandatory history teaching beyond the first three years of secondary schooling. In May, Vietnam’s parliament passed a resolution to similarly extend compulsory history teaching to 15-17-year-olds. Young Nigerians too should know their past to inform their present and help shape their future.

All state governments (they own and run the largest number of primary and secondary schools) should move fast to implement this programme. They should expand and fund the history departments of their colleges of education and universities to turn out more history teachers as clearly, they are in short supply. Scholarships, bursaries, and other incentives should be given to students willing to study history and take up teaching. There should provide funding for research and production of textbooks that are student-friendly. By law, privately-owned schools should follow suit in teaching history up to junior school level.

At the minimum, history should be compulsory as a stand-alone subject from basic stage at least up to the first three years of secondary schooling in all schools — public and private.

In collaboration with private sector initiatives, government at all levels should take the ambitious step of setting up mini museums of history in different local government headquarters, as practiced in more enlightened societies. This will also facilitate education tours and present an ingenious way of being acquainted with history.

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