Past or the future?: compulsory history plan gets mixed reviews
A ministerial task team’s recommendation to introduce history as a compulsory subject in grades 10‚ 11 and 12 has received mixed reactions. The task team established by the Department of Basic Education in 2015 released its 156-page report last week which recommended that history should be a compulsory subject in schools from 2023. At present pupils take history to grade 9 and are permitted to drop it in grade 10. But the plan has its critics. Some fear that history will be abused as a political propaganda tool. For example, in Zimbabwe the history syllabus in government schools is reportedly skewed in favour of the ruling Zanu-PF. The task team conducted research on India‚ Rwanda‚ Zimbabwe‚ Nigeria‚ China‚ Tanzania‚ Russia and Brazil to earlier international research. The South African Democratic Teachers Union first called for history to be made compulsory in 2014. The union has said understanding the history of SA and the continent would help unify the country. However, the Natio...
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