In a step towards the decolonisation of education in South Africa, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has reappointed a history ministerial task team to review the curriculum and make it more Afrocentric and relevant to South African pupils.
"This is to ensure that the new history curriculum is representative and covers multiple perspectives, rather than one main dominant and distorted narrative," Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said in a statement on Tuesday.
This comes after a history ministerial task team report released in December 2017 recommended a complete overhaul of the curriculum and assessment statement from Grade 4 to Grade 12.
The task team, which will again be led by Professor Sifiso Ndlovu, has been given a mandate by the minister to "set the direction of history education for the country going forward".
'Moving forward together'
Earlier this year, IOL reported that Ndlovu and his task team had recommended that history be made compulsory for Grades 10 to 12 from 2023.
The terms of reference for the task team will be to:
• Develop a new history curriculum from Grade 4 to 12;
• Conduct consultation and obtain inputs for the history curriculum from the provincial education sector;
• Receive inputs and comments for consideration regarding the history curriculum;
• Screen textbooks to ensure they are aligned with the new curriculum; and
• Propose history teacher development programmes.
"I have absolute faith in the team of experts that are going to be forging the way forward in terms of how we teach our young people about the past.
"I believe that a comprehensive, well-rounded and accurate teaching of history will help our learners understand themselves better and assist the country in moving forward together," Motshekga said.