Makerere don roots for history education

PIC: Lecturer of history education at the department of humanities and language education at Makerere University Dorothy Sebbowa Kyagaba during second International Conference on history education in Africa at School of food technology and bio-engineering in Makerere University recently. (Mary Kansiime)

EDUCATION

KAMPALA - Makerere University lecturer Dorothy Kyagaba has singled out the teaching of history education as the main route to help teachers in training to appreciate the various aspects of their past educational process so as to link them to the present.

Kyagaba, a lecturer of history education at the college of education and external studies, says the study enables teachers in training to know what type of education they had and the purpose it served in the past.

"History education gives teachers in training the opportunity of knowing our past mistakes in our education, with the view to making amends," she said.

Kyagaba made the remarks during the second international conference on history at Makerere University on Monday.

The conference was organised the department of humanities and language education and the African Association for History Education (AHE-Afrika) in collaboration with the International Research Association for History and Social Sciences Education.

The two-day conference under the theme, teaching and learning history in a changing Africa: possibilities and challenges in the 21st century, was aimed at stimulating discussion and reflecting and consolidating extant knowledge on the state of history education in Uganda and Africa.

 Kyagaba argued that history of education gives teachers in training the opportunity of studying other people's ideas and programmes with the aim of developing the nation.

"We must interest our students to study history because it is relevant for their lives," she said.

She added that history gives teachers in training and learners a solid foundation to plan for the present and future educational development.


However, Prof. John .C. Ssekamwa, a senior lecturer at the university, explained that teaching students practical skills to be able create their own employment was critical.

"The issue of job-creation by graduates from Uganda's education system is of key concern in the Uganda society to curb unemployment," he said.

At the conference, Prof. Johan Wassermann of University of Pretoria in South Africa called for the abolition of European history from African curricular.

"We will not develop if Africans are still learning European challenges. Africa should study its problems and forge ways of solving them," Wassermann said.


On the same note, Kyagaba argued that Africans should only pick important issues from the foreign history that can push for its development.

History of education will help you to understand how the past events shaped the present education systems, theories and related phenomenon in the area of teacher education in particular and education in general.