Former Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) President Archbishop Felix Alaba Job bemoaned the absence of reform in Nigeria’s educational system, namely the exclusion of history from the curriculum. He thinks that because of this lack of reform, this generation has lost the ability to discriminate between good and wrong. Job emphasised that Education degrades national identity when it lacks the appropriate historical context when speaking at the 13th convocation event of Veritas University in Abuja, where he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters. Since the 1980s, governments have disregarded requests for curricular reform despite several warnings.
Addressing allegations of Corruption against religious leaders, he denied that genuine religious leaders engage in such activities. Job maintained that the existing Educational System is morally deficient and encouraged the government to reinstate spiritual and moral values. Prof. Hyacinth Ichoku, the vice-chancellor of Veritas University, emphasised the school’s recent successes on the national and international scene, while Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama urged graduates to make constructive contributions to the advancement of Nigeria. The Archbishop Job’s worries on the elimination of history from Nigeria’s Curriculum are backed up by a number of research and actual cases that illustrate the negative effects of ignoring historical knowledge.
History undermines the basis for civic duty and national unity—Educators.
According to experts, teaching history to students helps them develop their morals, cultural awareness, and critical thinking skills. Young people risk losing their sense of national identity and their capacity to learn from past mistakes if they do not receive a solid historical education. Many educators and cultural specialists claimed that history undermines the basis for civic duty and national unity, which is why it was removed from Nigeria’s curriculum in 2009. Recognising that its disappearance had a negative impact on pupils’ comprehension of the nation’s history and their civic responsibilities, the Nigerian government restored history as a required subject in 2018.
Students who are exposed to historical knowledge are more likely to gain a sophisticated understanding of society challenges and make wise judgements, per a Brookings Institution report. A generation devoid of critical understanding of their nation’s history and the wider world may be more prone to false information and a distorted perspective on the world if history is not taught in schools. History was removed from Nigeria, creating a knowledge vacuum about the country’s complicated colonial past, ethnic conflicts, and independence process. This might potentially erode national identity.
Challenges include a lack of resources and poor teacher preparation.
To address these issues, Nigeria’s Ministry of Education acknowledged in 2018 that the removal of history was an error and promised to make sure it was properly reintroduced. However, issues including a lack of resources and poor Teacher preparation have prevented broad implementation. “We cannot overlook the crucial role that history plays in the development of our country,” said Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education, in a public statement. We are dedicated to redressing injustice and making sure that history has its proper place in our classrooms, even though its removal denied future generations a knowledge of our country.”
Furthermore, Archbishop Job’s attempts to impact Nigerian educational reform are not new. He expressed worries about the declining standard of education as early as the 1980s, pointing out in particular that the curriculum lacked moral and ethical instruction. Given the difficulties facing society now, his 1984 warning that students would lose the capacity to discriminate between right and wrong if the school system was not changed is especially startling. Because Job feels that a well-rounded education must also address students’ spiritual and moral development, he has continuously argued for the inclusion of both religious and historical instruction.
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Given these realities, the answer is not just to bring history back into the classroom but also to make sure that educators have the necessary training to do so. Furthermore, incorporating civic and moral education into history teachings might aid in bridging the gap between ethical development and academic understanding. Nigeria may take a cue from nations like Japan, where moral education is valued equally to academic courses and teaches kids responsible, respectful, and honest values in addition to historical facts.