Public figures weigh in
OMAR BADSHA, South African African documentary photographer and historian, said history should be made compulsory from Grade 4 up to matric. “But it should also be integrated into other subjects, like geography.”
Badsha, founder and chief executive of South African History Online, said the major issue was implementation: “Do we have enough teachers who study history; are we promoting history, are teachers studying the subject at university?”
He said in 2001, then education minister Kader Asmal had set up a history task team, and there were recommendations to ensure the history curriculum was progressive, inclusive and assessable, “But some were never followed through.”
He questioned how committed the Department of Basic Education was to this. Badsha started at the Albert Luthuli Young Historians Project 10 years ago, and said while it was still successful, not enough schools were part of the initiative.
GORDON GOVENDER, recentlyWingen Heights Secondary School principal, said he, too, supported the call for history being made compulsory.
“I fully support local history as long as it is representative of all races, as well as indentured labourers and other expats who contributed to the evolution of the country.”
His Chatsworth school had not had a history exam at matric level over the past 10 years, Govender said.
“This is going to change in 2017. We had the first lot of pupils who took history in Grade 10 level in 2015.”
NEESHAN BALTON, director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, said the foundation was on record as supporting the education of young people in particular, about the history of South Africa, “Especially its liberation history”.
“Whether or not making history compulsory will bring about greater enthusiasm and understanding for the subject matter, is something that we would still need to think about carefully.”
He said in addition, making history compulsory would not automatically ensure that young people will be keen on wanting to do it as a subject.
Balton said there could resistance from pupils if they were forced to do history, “which might defeat the objective of wanting it to be compulsory”.
MARSHALL MAPOSA, a history lecturer at UKZN, said he valued the subject and believed it was important for people to learn it.
“However, I have a problem with compulsion. There should be incentives to study rather than compulsion.”
Maposa also warned that history could “easily be abused for political gain”.
“So as much I don’t want to say I don’t trust government intentions, history has taught us that history has been abused in many countries, so I wouldn’t want the same in South Africa – where people are taught history out of compulsion.”
Maposa agreed that there should be more “African history” in the curriculum, saying people in Africa needed to learn about themselves.
ELA GANDHI, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, supported the move and described it as “very, very important”.
“It was unfortunate people decided that history wasn’t that important when the new government took office,” she said.
“The history being taught was not relevant. It was skewed from the perspective of the apartheid government, and the history taught was from Europe and so forth.
“Pupils should learn about their own country and their own history. That is important.”
She said that 22 years into democracy, South Africa should be able to put its history into the school syllabus.