The Federal Ministry of Education has inaugurated the new curriculum for History and ordered its release to primary and secondary schools nationwide for onward teaching.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who gave the directive in Abuja, said that the teaching of history in schools would be used as an instrument of national integration and nation-building.
Adamu said the history curriculum, prepared by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, was hinged on “aspects with emphasis on ties that bind us and it will enable pupils to appreciate the basis of the unity of Nigeria.”
He said, “The initiative to reintroduce the teaching of History in primary and junior secondary schools was approved by the National Council on Education during its 61st Ministerial session in September 2016. The NERDC was directed to carry out the disarticulation of history from the Social Studies curriculum.
“To achieve this disarticulation, the NERDC assembled a team of experts and other stakeholders to produce this document. The developed curriculum was approved at the 63rd meeting of the NCE held in Kano in June 2017. The new curriculum was designed to expose pupils to a body of knowledge that would enable them appreciate history as an instrument of national integration and nation-building.
“It is our hope that the new curriculum will equip the young generations of Nigerians with the basis of the unity of Nigeria and prepare them for the task of nation-building.”
The NERDC Executive Secretary, Prof Ismail Junaidu, said some of the concepts captured in the new curriculum include origins of history and peopling, heroes and heroines in Nigeria, political developments in Nigeria, geography and environment, economics and trade, cultures and custom of Nigeria.
“The curriculum is divided into three levels; Primary 1-3 (lower basic), Primary 4-6 (middle basic) and Junior Secondary School 1-3 (Upper basic),” he added.
