The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has announced plans by federal government to officially reintroduce history as a core subject in the country’s basic school curriculum.
This initiative is designed to foster a deeper connection between Nigeria’s youth and their heritage, thereby enhancing national identity.
In 2007, history was controversially removed from the basic school curriculum, leading to significant backlash as students subsequently received only a cursory exposure to the nation’s vast historical narratives within social studies classes.
In a notable push in 2018, the federal government mandated the reinstatement of history as an independent subject for primary and junior secondary schools. Then-Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, explained that the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) needed to first disentangle history from social studies to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding among students.
This initiative was regarded as a vital tool for promoting national integration and nation-building.
To support this change, 3,700 history teachers weee selected for training to elevate the standard of history education.
Several state education ministries, including those in Lagos and Taraba, have already begun rolling out this vital policy.
Speaking on a TV program, Alausa emphasised the importance of this reform. “What has been missing in the past is Nigerian history. We now have people of 30 years disconnected from our history. That doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world,” Alausa remarked. “President Bola Tinubu has mandated that history be reintroduced into the curriculum, and it will be back in 2025, with primary and secondary students studying it.”
