Report on compulsory history ready

A REPORT on whether history should be made a compulsory subject up to Grade 12 in schools will be released on Thursday.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said her department would receive the recommendation this week and the document would thereafter be made available on the department’s website for public comment.

According to her spokesman Elijah Mhlanga, talks on the matter started in 2014 when Motshekga requested the idea be investigated.

In 2015 a ministerial task team was formed and for two years the team went around the country to discuss the proposal.

“The minister will release the report on whether to make history compulsory and on whether to review the content and make changes,” said Mhlanga.

Late last year a high-level ministerial task team came to East London to get input from stakeholders on a proposal to make history compulsory for Grade 10 to 12 pupils. At present, pupils do history up to Grade 9 and then may choose to drop the subject. But if the plan gets the thumbs-up pupils will have to take it to matric.

When Motshekga announced the research plan in 2015 the DA called it “a sinister and sustained attempt by the ANC to exert more political control over the school system”.

The ANC and Sadtu hailed the idea, saying the subject would help celebrate the heritage, culture and values which had made South Africa what it was today.

Subsequent to the announcement, Motshekga approved the team tasked with overseeing the research project. Some of the task team’s responsibilities included researching how other countries had introduced compulsory history as part of citizenship studies in their school systems, how to strengthen Grade 10 to 12 history content, reviewing Grade 1 to 9 content and making recommendations to the minister.

They were also tasked with arranging public hearings on the findings, compiling a report, drafting an implementation and management plan, and aligning history textbooks with the new curriculum. —