History at schools to focus on Africa

BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced sweeping changes to the teaching of history as a school subject, saying it would be Afrocentric and not based on European history.

She said a task team had been set up to deal with the matter and government would launch the programme on May 25, which is Africa Day.

Motshekga, who made the announcement during her budget vote in Parliament, said the programme would be phased in over seven years as money became available.

“There should be a lot of engagement and the festival of ideas where we rewrite the history books. We see it as a seven-year project to give us a chance to talk. It helps to have identity,” said Motshekga.

She said they wanted all the stakeholders to take part in the discussions on how to shape the subject of history at schools.

She insisted that pupils must understand the history of the country and not be consumed by the history of Europe.

Motshekga also told Parliament that they were working hard to eradicate mud schools.

Motshekga told opposition parties that despite their claims that the education system was dysfunctional, the public had full confidence in the government.

She said public schooling constituted 96% of schooling in the country.

“It means South Africans have huge confidence in the public schools. Public schools comprise more than 13 million learners and the private schools have 300 000 learners,” said Motshekga. “This is a vote of confidence in the government.”

Her deputy, Enver Surty, said a lot of work had been done to improve basic education in the past few years. He said the department had improved access to education, with now more than one million pupils in Grade R.

“We have universal access for children between the ages of five and 13.”

He said there were more than 9.2 million pupils on the school feeding scheme.