Zimbabwe’s Political Crisis and the Production of Syllabi for Teaching History in High Schools

Abstract The Zimbabwean crisis, which began around 2000, had serious ramifications for the teaching of history in the country, especially in high schools. This study investigated the impact of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis on the production of syllabi for teaching history at high schools. It analyses the hurried changes in the secondary school history syllabi which saw the subject being declared a compulsory subject for all students. In the high schools, history was at the centre of an ideological struggle as the government sought to teach the students “patriotic history.” However, others have seen this as a cheap propaganda tool meant to brainwash and hoodwink students into supporting the ZANU-PF regime that presided over the political, social, and economic crisis bedevilling the country. This article, therefore, unpacks the changes in syllabi for schools and analyse how this impacted on the teaching of history in the country. A comparative analysis of the content of the successive syllabi was carried out to flesh out the inclusions and exclusions in the new syllabi. The syllabi compared are 2160, 2166, and 2167 for the ordinary level certificate.