Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom has described as evil, the removal of history as a subject from secondary and primary school curriculum by the Federal Government.
Speaking on Friday in Makurdi, the state capital, the governor said Benue State will legislate a solution for the teaching of History even if it’s for internal consumption of knowledge about how the people of Benue came to occupy what is today called Benue.
“Removing history from our curriculum is an evil agenda. So, in our schools here even if we do it and it is not accepted for examinations to be conducted at the level of SSCE, let’s do Mock Exams, this will be within us. Because we must know our history, we must know how we came here.
“We must know when we sojourned here and know people that came to join us. We must know what happened in 1800. All these are very important. If we don’t do it, we have failed as a generation and posterity will not forgive us,” Ortom said.
He also instructed that vernacular should be taught in Benue schools beginning from next academic session – September 2021 along with History as core subjects.
The removal of history studies from primary and secondary schools curriculum became effective from the 2009/2010 academic session with the Federal Government launching a new curriculum known as the New Basic Education Curriculum for primary and junior secondary schools.
The decision was however met with criticism with many describing the reasons as mere excuses.
Following the criticisms, in 2016, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, announced that the Federal Government is taking steps to restore history as a subject in primary and secondary schools’ curriculum.