BASIC EDUCATION: PROPOSED CHANGES TO HISTORY CURRICULUM UNPACKED

BASIC EDUCATION: PROPOSED CHANGES TO HISTORY CURRICULUM UNPACKED

• 15 April 2026
• Education & Training
• SA Legal Academy

In the light of a recent media statement from Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube on the controversy apparently surrounding proposed changes to the history curriculum and assessment policy statements (CAPS) for Grades 4 to 12, SA Legal Academy Policy Watch provides some insights into what is envisaged, with links to the documents concerned. This is noting that CAPS changes are not normally reported on this website.

The draft revised history CAPS were posted on the Department of Basic Education website on 20 March 2026, when a notice was gazetted calling for input on what is envisaged. The deadline for public comments is 19 April 2026 but may well be extended given the widespread interest shown.

In the Minister’s view, South Africa’s history curriculum ‘should not exclude key events or perspectives on political grounds, nor should it impose any particular ideology on learners’. With that in mind, she has encouraged South Africans to ‘study (the proposals) carefully and make substantive submissions … indicat(ing) where they believe the draft(s) should be strengthened, corrected, expanded or refined’.

According to the same media statement, the Minister is ‘committed to ensuring that the curriculum equips learners to think critically about … (South Africa’s) past, so that they may form their own opinions’. Noting that ‘some of the claims circulating about the draft curriculum (changes) are not supported by … content’, the statement cautioned against misinformation.

The statement followed a 9 April 2026 departmental press release providing background information on the changes proposed. Among other things, it drew attention to a ‘curriculum review process … under way for several years’, in which the history CAPS changes now being proposed are simply the latest step.

Against that backdrop, they:

• include the study of:
  • ‘ancient and modern pasts’
  • African history, heritage and local history
  • oral history (‘to broaden the evidentiary base and recover perspectives that were previously marginalised’)
  • labour history
  • language, gender and material cultural history, and
  • world history
• draw from historical and archaeological sources, and
• encourage the ‘development of critical historical thinking, historical consciousness and historical culture’.

For more information, please click the links below:

• Minister’s media statement
• 9 April 2026 media statement
• draft revised CAPS Grades 4-6
• draft revised CAPS Grades 7-9
• draft revised CAPS Grades 10-12
• Government Gazette notice
• comments template

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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