How History can best be handled in schools —Omolewa

AN education historian and former president of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Emeritus Professor Michael Omolewa, has proffered what he calls the best way to handle the study of History as a standalone subject now that the subject has been reintroduced into Nigeria’s secondary school curriculum.

He said the curriculum would need to accommodate the period of neglect of the subject, appropriate and updated textbooks provided, and only qualified and competent teachers should be engaged to teach the subject.

Professor Omolewa stated this on Tuesday in an exclusive conversation with Tribune Education.

He said to achieve all these and make the teaching and learning of History more lively, effective and resourceful, all stakeholders in the sector, including parents, as well as professional bodies should be involved in the preparation of the curriculum, writing of appropriate textbooks and also in the training and retraining of History teachers.

‘The rage against Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari’

“There must be adoption of a modern methodology of teaching the subject, as children of nowadays are more interested in why certain things happened or not  happened than the time it happened,”  he noted.

Speaking about the benefits of History as a subject of study in schools, Professor Omolewa listed five major benefits to be derived by Nigerian people and the country as an entity.

He said children would better appreciate the contributions and sacrifices of people in the past who invested their lives, struggles, skills, attitudes and talents to free Nigeria from colonial masters. They will know that political freedom is not something to be taken for granted.

Speaking further he said, “They will also understand and appreciate better our past political leaders (the nationalists) and national symbols inscribed on our currency notes. They will understand that these leaders put in lots of energy, courage, sacrifice, and determination to become great and achieve their dreams, especially for the country.

“By that, History will become alive to them at their early ages before they begin to venture into different fields of endeavours. They will know courage and determinations and resilience and all that are required to become great in life.”

Another benefit, he said, is that the young learners will be able to measure the level of development, maybe of one region or country against the others.

He said: “For example, countries like Malaysia and Singapore with which we attained political freedom almost at same period are now far ahead of us in technology and economic development.

“History will teach us what those countries did that we have not done and vice versa; and by that, we will be able to know the best way to address our problems.

“History will also help to ensure the sustainability of our cultural heritage. Children will be able to know why the Benins, for example, dress to occasions differently from the Yorubas or Hausas, Tivs or the Ijaws and so forth.

“It will help us to know and understand why each of the tribes is able to sustain their cultural heritage in spite of colonial rule. And lastly, history is not what is being taught in class per se but those things going on in non-formal settings at homes, in communities and all that.

“History will let us know why a particular town, for example, designated a day to celebrate a particular festival and so forth.

“So, the return of History into our school curriculum is a development in a right direction for us as citizens and as a country.”