A non-governmental organisation, Youth Empowerment Education Initiative (YEEI) has advocated for the introduction of History and Geography subjects at primary school level.
?Chairman, board of trustees of YEEI, Chris Edewor, said Nigerian children would be lost and reduced more or less to slaves, should they lose track of their history.
He said, “We are neglecting some core subject areas that Nigerian children need to be grounded in; that is, History and Geography. I think these two subjects should be introduced in primary schools. The Social Studies subject is so limited in schools that it cannot accommodate what History and Geography have. Children should be taught the history of their country, they should know more about their country.”
According to Edewor, departments of History and Geography in many higher institutions have been deserted as a result of people opting for other subjects like Business Administration, which they think is more lucrative.
This, he noted, is detrimental, as the youths would be living like foreigners in their own land, not knowing the story of how Nigeria evolved from the pre-colonial to post independence eras.
“How many students in secondary school can draw the map of Nigeria, or even identify a particular area in the map? They can’t, because we have neglected that. That is why we advocate that Geography and History be made mandatory from the primary school to secondary school level. Because if they are introduced in primary to secondary school, students will have the interest to study more of History, more of Geography. We no longer have History and Geography students. Go to Geography departments, they are very scanty.”
He noted that, “The essence of Geography is to know the area that the country covers. These are unique subjects that we cannot shy away from. Everybody is running to Business Administration and economics and other courses they think are more lucrative.
“Every course is unique on its own. We know quite all right that we are in the information age, but if everybody goes to study Information and Communication Technology (ICT), who will live to tell the history? The next generation would come without knowing their history and foreigners would invade and take them for granted, because they don’t know their history. That is why some people do not know their roots. It is not a good thing. People should know their history, where they come from. Nigerian children need to know the about pre-colonial period, the colonial period and what led to our independence, because it will help them to be focused in whatever they are doing. If you don’t know much about your country, then you are a slave. It is just like a child who does not know about his father.”
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