UTech president wants African history taught in J’can schools
Published:Friday | October 24, 2025 | 12:06 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Dr Kevin Brown, president of the University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica, wants the Ministry of Education to integrate African history into curricula, citing the importance of having students develop an appreciation for the continent’s contributions to Jamaica’s development.
Brown, who was addressing the Montego Bay Community College’s Dr Lorna Nembhard Public Lecture at the college’s Montego Bay campus on Wednesday, said learning about pre-European history is important for Jamaicans to know where they are coming from.
“The unfortunate thing is that our curriculum is still not fully developed around our pre-European history, so we often do not speak about or know about our African civilisations. We did not start out as slaves as that is recent history,” said Brown. “Ask yourself, who were the Egyptians? Do we know about the great kingdoms of Ghana, not present-day Ghana? Do we really know the history of the kingdom of the Zulu people, Great Zimbabwe?
“The problem in not teaching that history is that you believe that another group of people gave us this education, gave us this science and mathematics, without realising that it came from people who look like you,” continued Brown. “I encourage the MOE to correct this issue, to teach our children pre-European history, African history, and once you realise that your African history is beyond slavery, some of the issues we have as a country around our identity will be resolved.”
Over the years, there have been many calls for greater exposure to African history in the island’s schools. For example, in 2019, Dr Julius Garvey, the son of National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey, accused the Government of Jamaica of failing to prioritise the teaching of African history as opposed to British history. The issue was also raied in 2022 by University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer Dr Dave Gosse, who pointed out that many students’ first exposure to Africa is through the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Brown told the students at the lecture that modern-day access to education should not be taken for granted due to the historical sacrifices that were made in order for Jamaicans to have that access.
“You have to understand where we are coming from, that we have been on a process since Independence to educate you, to educate Jamaicans. Why is it important? Because education is transformative. It transforms a nation, and education creates social mobility,” said Brown.
Meanwhile, Dr Darien Henry, the principal of the college, said that access to education, including at the tertiary level, is a matter of policy that must shape Jamaica’s future.
“The World Bank’s Public Expenditure Review, released just a few months before the Orlando Patterson report [in 2021], noted that while Jamaica spends a significant share of its national budget on education, access to tertiary studies remains uneven. Rural students, males, and even those from the lower quintile of our population are still underrepresented,” said Henry.
“The report in 2021 urged greater efficiency, stronger data-driven planning, and deliberate policies that close the equity gap at all levels of our education system. These findings converge with one simple truth: that access to education is not just a statistic, It is a policy, and policy shapes destiny,” added Henry.