Reintroduction of History in Schools in Nigeria: Some Major Encumbrances to Paradigm Shift in History Education in Taraba State

Abubakar Mohammed,

History Department, College of Education, Zing.

Email: amgassol@gmail.com

Abstract

History as a subject form one of the core courses in the history of education in Nigeria from the lower to tertiary from the level right colonial era. However, two decades after the independence, the fortunes of the discipline began to dwindle, and by 1983 History was replaced with Social Studies at Primary and Junior Secondary School levels cutting off young Nigerians from romancing with their past glories. This development left a vacuum in our educational system leading to kaput of History as a subject at Basic educational level which, in turn, affected specialization in History as discipline in Nigerian tertiary institutions. It was until 1999, under Obasanjo’s regime, that attempts were made to reintroduce History at the lower level of learning. The zenith of the reintroduction of the subject in schools has been achieved under the present administration with statutory backings to reinstate the subject. This paper is an attempt to identify the encumbrances associated with the reintroduction history in schools in Nigeria, particularly in Taraba State. Despite all these frantic efforts to resuscitate History and make it a compulsory subject, some factors identified as major encumbrances to paradigm shift in the study of history in schools in Taraba State were identified by this study to include; government policies, funding, students’ attitude to History, lack of sufficient trained historians, waning force of Historical Society of Nigeria, ascendancy of capitalists values, job opportunities and collapse of national interest among others. The work purely adopted the qualitative research methods of historical approach to issues aforementioned.

Introduction

One of the cardinal focuses of history as a discipline is ‘man’, who is inevitably concerned with the nature of the past as indicators of the present and future. History offers an understanding of the nature of the society, its values and problems through critical analysis and assessment of the major events in its social, economic, political, and environmental developments, the major dramatis personae and some philosophies behind their actions. It equally explains how man’s actions are influenced majorly by these forces.

History as a subject or discipline entails much about one’s ability to give sound judgment and understanding of issues in the society as they occur day in day out, ranging from individual community, national levels and to the world at large. History holds the key to foster understanding of smooth relationship between individuals and communities, in the local and international scenes. So, the absence of history in our school curriculum, especially lower level of academics, means total failure of the society, since the younger ones will not know their roots and what has been bequeathed by their heroes and ancestors to build and improve on. Therefore, reintroduction of history at the lower level of learning is a right step in a right direction, meaning a paradigm shift in building sound foundation for national consciousness in our educational system.

Nevertheless, in spite of the giant strides through concerted efforts by individuals, private organizations and government to bring back to life ‘History’ in our basic educational system, there are other forces at work, bent to retard the reintroduction of