AfricaPress-Tanzania: COMPULSORY teaching of ‘Tanzania History’ subject in the country’s schools will officially begin in the second term that starts in July this year, government announced on Friday.
Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Joyce Ndalichako, stated that the subject, which would be alongside the current history lesson, would be taught in Swahili language to make pupils and students easily grasp the knowledge.
The minister was speaking at a press conference in Dodoma when briefing journalists over development reached so far ahead of introducing the new subject from early to secondary education.
The ministry’s move was in implementation of President John Magufuli’s directive he issued last December that the ministry should make the history lesson compulsory in schools to instill patriotism in children and youth.
He gave the directive when swearing in new ministers, saying; “We want this subject to be compulsory, we want our children to be taught history of their country to help impart patriotism to them,” President Magufuli stated.
He repeated the same yesterday in Morogoro municipality at an event to inaugurate three newly established industries, saying he was wondering why the ministry has remained silent on the matter since he issued the directive.
In the ministry’s quick response, the ministry convened a press conference to speak about what it has done so far to implement the order.
At a press conference, Prof Ndalichako said the ministry found it ideal to make the subject compulsory because the move would build patriotism among young Tanzanians and spirit of protecting national resources and make them know how colonialists tricked Tanzania’s forefathers to siphon resources from the country.
The subject is also aimed at enabling the youth know how Tanzania struggled to gain independence from colonialists.
“The ministry took the directive by President Magufuli with desired weight and we looked at our curricula and we saw that the current history subject gives very little knowledge about Tanzania history,” she acknowledged.
In realizing this, the ministry prepared syllabuses for the subject to be taught from early education up to Form VI.
“The syllabuses have been designed to stir patriotism among Tanzanians and make them love, value their country and protect resources,” Prof Ndalichako stated as she displayed some of prepared syllabi of Tanzania’s history from Standard one to Seven, Form I to IV and Form V to VI.
The work to prepare the syllabi were done in collaboration with various stakeholders, including the historians and several institutions in ensuring that history of Tanzania is properly documented for students.
She explained that after completing preparing the syllabi, the next move would be to write books for different levels from primary school to secondary schools.
“We want to write books that would attract readers; we have already told the authors to do so,” she said.
She informed that the work to write the books on Tanzania history for the schools would be complete in next March ready for printing.
