However President Muhammadu Buhari’s infamous 2020 remarks about historical past, his administration twice promised to reintroduce the topic to varsities, however didn’t ship on each events. That explains why President Bola Tinubu-led administration’s announcement that this yr, schoolchildren will once more start to study historical past is each heart-warming and disconcerting. IYABO LAWAL writes that solely time will inform if the current administration will stay as much as its phrases.
“Hey, youngsters!” the trainer bellowed.“Hey, Aunty!” the schoolchildren excitedly responded at an amusement park in Lagos, final yr as they celebrated Democracy Day, on June 12, 2024.
“Are you content to be right here?” the trainer requested. Like an enraptured set of red-headed lizards, they nodded vigorously within the affirmative.
“Are you aware why there’s a public vacation at the moment?” The trainer probed.“To have some enjoyable!” the youngsters chorused in unison. Their ignorance of historical past was not misplaced on the trainer. But, she was unwilling to simply accept their ignorance.
“Okay. Let me ask you a query. Anybody who will get the suitable reply will go dwelling with a carton of noodles,” stated the trainer, pointing at a field on a desk.
“Who was Obafemi Awolowo?” she requested.“He was a footballer!” a number of of the youngsters said.“I stated Obafemi Awolowo, not Obafemi Martins,” she tactfully corrected them.
Over the following a number of minutes, the youngsters had been requested extra questions on Nigeria’s historic personalities and occasions, however they may not get one proper.
Ultimately, their voices fizzled out in disappointment as none of them might win the coveted carton of noodles.
To liven issues up, the trainer requested: “Who sang ‘You’re my African queen’?”“Tuface Idibia!” They chorused.
They know Tuface, Davido, Tiwa Savage, and different entertainers. They even know Messi, Ronaldo, Mo Salah and Bukayo Saka.
Sadly, most of them have no idea Herbert Macaulay, Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Moshood Abiola, not even the dwelling legend, Wole Soyinka. Their seemingly harmless, stunning eyes see no additional than what society and school rooms have fed them withjunk and fleeting historical past.
The Nigerian authorities has promised to reverse the pattern. Nonetheless, that promise didn’t begin at the moment.
In practically twenty years, the material of historical past as an educational topic within the classroom has been in ruins. The rigmarole of its revival has been riddled with relentless lip service, even from the best quarters. However what stands out as a sore thumb, is the sacrilegious assertion made by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“You youngsters are very fortunate. I’m interesting to you to be very cautious. Your success in future relies upon not on topics like historical past or English Language, however science and know-how as a result of these are the class (sic) of individuals which are prone to stand a greater likelihood of being employed in future,” Buhari instructed 344 college students of Authorities Boys Science Secondary College in Kankara.
That was on December 17, 2020. The ex-president’s remark stays one of the vital atrocious statements ever made regarding historical past as a topic.
For distinction and context, the then-president’s administration was within the throes of re-introducing historical past in class when the chief of the federal government gave his unlucky verdict on learning the course.
At the very least twice underneath Buhari’s administration, public bulletins had been made per the reintroduction of historical past as a topic. It remained a mirage till his eight-year rule lapsed.
In 2017, the Nigeria Training Analysis and Growth Council (NERDC) introduced that it was set to re-introduce historical past as a topic, starting within the 2018/2019 tutorial session. The then-NERDC Govt Secretary, Prof. Ismail Junaidu, had said that the curriculum was prepared and could be a stand-alone curriculum that might be taught from major one to JSS III after the Nationwide Council on Training (NCE) had permitted the reintroduction of the topic.
In 2018, the federal authorities unveiled a brand new curriculum for instructing and studying the topic in primary colleges nationwide. The brand new curriculum was permitted on the 63rd assembly of the NCE, which was held in Kano, in June 2017. The ex-NERDC boss forwarded a pattern of the brand new curriculum for historical past to the states to provide them ample time to plan of its implementation.
“All states are anticipated to be sensitised, and lecturers skilled on how one can use the curriculum earlier than the implementation can start. We have to give the states ample time to place their homes so as earlier than we begin implementing the curriculum,” Junaidu had stated.
He added: “We’ve begun work on the curriculum as a result of the NCE has given the directive that it’ll quickly get to varsities. The implementation will start subsequent tutorial session.”
A professor of Authorized Historical past, Akin Alao, whereas reacting to the pronouncement in 2017 famous {that a} nation with no sense of historical past “is a soulless one,” mentioning that it “might safely be stated that most of the challenges going through state and nation-building efforts in Nigeria had been because of the neglect of historical past.”
In keeping with the professor, the historical past of inter-group relations in Nigeria confirmed the extent of interactions amongst Nigerian ethnic teams or nationalities lengthy earlier than the imposition of colonial rule.
He asserted that it will have been the obligation of historical past as a topic in colleges to deliver these truths to younger Nigerians to affect their understanding of life and what roles they may play in cementing the connection amongst teams.
“It might even have meant that younger impressionable Nigerians very early in life develop optimistic self-concept and consciousness that might be the idea for the emergence of an id that shall be actually nationwide and well-conceived,” Alao added.
The erudite scholar defined that historical past has worth in growing the thoughts and that “there is no such thing as a self-discipline with out its historical past, together with drugs.
“What’s required is the acquisition of the methods of historical past. For instance, a lawyer has to know, perceive, and think about the 2 sides of a coin to make a superb case. A medical physician wants the historical past of the affected person and the ailment earlier than he can have a profitable prognosis,” Alao said.
“An architect should have a way of historical past to know what designs will meet particular wants. An administrator have to be very acquainted with the historical past of the folks earlier than he can administer efficiently.”
Alao’s hope for a rebirth of historical past within the classroom was dashed, as the topic by no means obtained the breath of life. Over time, it has been empty phrases, all movement and no motion.
Like Buhari, his successor, President Bola Tinubu, is making an identical promise to re-introduce historical past as a topic within the classroom.
“Let me go to primary schooling; the curriculum is nice. One essential factor that has been lacking prior to now is Nigerian historical past. We now have 30-year-olds which are disconnected from our historical past. It doesn’t occur in any a part of the world. President Tinubu has mandated that we put that again in our curriculum, and it’s again. From this yr, our college students in major and secondary colleges can have that as a part of their research,” Training Minister, Tunji Alausa, stated.
The transition from the 8-6-2-3 schooling system-comprising eight years of major, six years of secondary schooling, two years of highschool certificates, and three years of college the 6-5-2-3 system in 1954 didn’t impression the instructing of historical past, because it remained a part of the varsity curriculum. With the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 tutorial construction in 1982, there was a deliberate transfer to remove historical past as a topic in junior secondary lessons, changing it with social research.
Whereas historical past continued to be taught in senior secondary lessons, it was downgraded to an optionally available topic for college kids.
Nigeria, through the 2009/2010 tutorial session, eliminated historical past from major and secondary colleges’ curricula. Official causes for eradicating historical past had been that college students had been shunning it as a result of just a few jobs had been out there for historical past graduates, and the dearth of historical past lecturers. It’s little marvel that so far, Nigeria has no official account of its civil warfare.
“If this authorities goes to deliver again historical past, it will be higher if we studied native historical past first. You need to know who you might be earlier than you might be something on this world,” famous former schooling minister, Adamu Adamu.
However he didn’t see to it that historical past was resuscitated in school rooms. Since 2016, the ministry he superintended over repeatedly stated historical past could be re-introduced within the schooling curriculum.
Taking place historical past lane, Professor of Historical past and former Chairman of the Committee of Deans of Training of Nigerian Universities, Michael Omolewa, recalled that the course of the instructing of historical past was adversely affected by the occasions that adopted the convening of the 1969 Nationwide Curriculum Convention, later by the adoption of a nationwide coverage of schooling and the following arrival of the 6-3-3-4 schooling system.
“The 1969 convention, which was anticipated to deliver hope to the nation’s instructional system, turned out to be the start of the decline of historical past instructing in colleges. In the long run, the curriculum reform, which grew from that convention, led to the discount of the standing of historical past.
Ultimately, historical past was expunged first from the first and the junior faculty curriculum, and later from the senior faculty degree,” Omolewa said.
He linked “the historic assault on historical past instructing” to the assumptions of the American-trained educators, the impression of the United States-assisted Ohio Undertaking, the Ayetoro Undertaking, the Comparative Training Research and Adaptation Centre (CESAC), and the contribution of the Nigerian Instructional Analysis Council (NERC).
That stated, historians and schooling stakeholders are united of their submission that the approaching return of historical past is a welcome growth, noting {that a} nation with no sense of historical past is a soulless one.
A professor of Historical past at Ekiti State College (EKSU), Olaoba Ademidun, like Prof Alao, believes that many challenges confronting the nation had been a results of the neglect of historical past.
A curriculum analyst, Prof. C. O. Kolawole of the College of Ibadan, summarised the elimination of historical past from the curriculum by the federal government as a mistake “as a result of any society that forgets its previous can’t plan for its future.
Ademidun famous that the return of historical past to the fundamental schooling degree would assist the following era uncover a number of historic developments of their fatherland, and train them how one can keep away from previous errors and failures.
In lauding the current administration for the deliberate return of historical past as a topic, Prof. Ojo Ipadeola of Obafemi Awolowo College, (OAU), Ife, stated: “Clearly, it’s essential to have historical past within the curriculum as a result of if current generations will not be taught their historical past, how would they be capable to chart their programs correctly sooner or later? They have to know what the nation has gone by means of for it to get to the place it’s earlier than they’ll respect how one can appropriate previous errors, and intelligently chart a course for higher achievement and progress.”
A retired historical past trainer who taught the topic for 18 years, Mr Kevin Obunde, expressed pleasure over the reintroduction, attributing most of the social ills within the nation to the neglect of historical past and ethical schooling.
“Such entrenched instructing and studying present a chance for appreciating antecedents that extol the good deeds of our previous heroes, their sacrifices, and contributions to creating the muse for an indivisible nation. It’s in doing this that we keep in mind and have a good time monumental achievements, memorable dates, occasions, names, and each occasion of historic significance.”
A curriculum analyst, Prof. C. O. Kolawole of the College of Ibadan, summarised the elimination of historical past from the curriculum by the federal government as a mistake “as a result of any society that forgets its previous can’t plan for its future.
