Paul Obi in Abuja Following
the outcry that trailed the suspension of History as a taught subject in
schools nationwide, the federal government on Thursday reinstated it across
basic schools in the country.
The Minister of Education,
Adamu Adamu, who called for the disarticulation of Social Studies in the
current curriculum of basic schools and reintroduction of History as a subject,
said this had become imperative given the critical nature of History to the
nation’s socio-political development.
The minister made the
statement in Abuja yesterday while addressing delegates at the 61st meeting of
the National Council on Education Ministerial Session.
The minister also urged the
council to consider making the study of Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) and
Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) compulsory for Christians and Muslims to the
end of Senior Secondary School.
Adamu said the
reintroduction of History as a subject would give the Nigerian child a
self-identity of who they really are.
He added that Nigeria owes
present and future generations the responsibility of removing all inhibitions
against opportunities of acquiring morals and ethics as taught in religious
traditions.
“It is only the study of
history, our own history, that can explain and give meaning to our very
humanity and that is why we must study it and teach our little ones. And it is
also not enough that they merely know who they are, we must teach them about their
God.
“Since it is said that if
you want to destroy any nation, it is said that first the family must be
destroyed, then education is destroyed, and the third are social morals that
are destroyed, so in Nigeria we owe both present and future generations the
responsibility of removing all inhibitions against making our children acquire
morals and ethics,” he said.
At the council’s meeting,
the minister also launched the National Teacher Education Policy (NTEP) and the
National Quality Assurance Policy (NPEQ).
According to the minister,
NPEQ is an assurance system for institutions below tertiary level and expected
standards of practice in Nigeria while NTEP identifies the pivotal role of
qualified teachers in the provision of quality education at all levels.
“The objective is to produce
highly skilled knowledgeable and creative teachers who are capable of producing
globally competitive students. The policy also seeks to ensure that teachers
are recruited, trained and re-trained based on explicit standards,” he said.
On the school feeding
programme and the recruitment of 500,000 teachers nationwide, the Chairman,
House Committee on Basic Education, Zakari Muhammed, at the meeting expressed
concern over the programmes, saying that legislators might face challenges with
programme monitoring and evaluation, as they are not directly domiciled under
the Federal Ministry of Education.
The Deputy Governor of Kano
State, Shamzu Abubakar, who also doubles as the Commissioner for Science and
Technology in the state, called on the federal government to channel all
resources to the grassroots across the state and local governments.
He also called on the
federal government to concentrate more on monitoring and evaluation to ensure
adequate review of the developmental strategic plan.
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