Weekend Argus 2.jpeg Call for an 'inclusive' SA history Zenzile Khoisan, Weekend Argus, Cape Town, 10 July 2016 A proposal to make history a compulsory subject for high school pupils, and to specifically teach them "Struggle history", has come under the scrutiny of historians, government officials and heritage experts who believe there needs to be an intense public participation process to ensure a complete and honest account. The proposal was mooted last month by SADTU general secretary Mugwena Maluleke, who said the union was determined to change the current history text narrative. In Maluleke's view, the proposal was a "quest for a full education" in light of SADTU pushing for curriculum changes to reflect the liberation struggle. MugwenaMalulekeSadtuGS-EducationInternational_large.jpg Mugwena Maluleke, General Secretary of SADTU. Vice-President of Education International. "SADTU is not only a working-class trade union, but is also a professional association of revolutionary teachers who are determined to pass on their knowledge to all our young compatriots," he said. Task team Education Minister Angie Motshekga has established a ministerial task team to look into the issue. She said the purpose of the new history curriculum was to "without any apology, remove the vestiges of apartheid's sanitised version of history". This should be done "without airbrushing the actual story and multiple interpretations of the apartheid past", nor glorifying "the story of the liberation movements, presenting them as an equivalent of moral virtue". Reconciliation Cecil Esau, senior project leader of the schools oral history project at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, said it was important for post-colonial societies to make history a compulsory subject in schools, and to intervene in the curriculum "to correct the distortions and omissions of colonial history". This was a critical factor in "nation building and social cohesion," he said, arguing however that these initiatives must not be attempts to enforce ideological hegemony. Voices "History must be told from multiple perspectives, and there is a need for multiple voices to be heard, which means it is not just politicians but also ordinary people. "We must also guard against writing purely political histories, because there are so many dimensions to our lives, so our histories must be multi-dimensional," Esau said. Psychology Diane Ferris, of the University of the Western Cape's industrial psychology department, said restructuring the curriculum would be a very involved project. But it was important to help young people "find their identities". It was also "important for healing because most young people do not have a clue about who they are" thanks to a biased or incomplete history. Public hearings Basil Kivedo, chairman of the education standing committee in the Western Cape provincial Legislature, said the standing committee would address the issues, and would also convene public hearings. "We should understand that when we set about rewriting the history texts, this cannot just be a partisan hatchet job. This is a serious matter and must be as cohesive and inclusive as possible, so that no one is marginalised." [email protected] From: http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/call-for-an-inclusive-sa-history-2043762 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 13780 (20160710) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/003001d1dabf%24025a0e00%24070e2a00%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
