By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Education has launched a new high school history textbook, Towards a Common Loftier Goal, replacing material last updated more than 40 years ago.

Written by Bahamian educators and historians, the book introduces inquiry-based learning aligned with the national curriculum and covers the country’s full historical arc—from early African civilisations to colonial and post-independence periods, major social and cultural milestones, and island-specific achievements.

Education Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin said the text is vital to helping students understand both the struggles and triumphs of the nation.

“The history text, as you’ve heard, written by Bahamians, published by a Bahamian publisher,” she said.

“This is very important, because we have to cause for our young people to have a sense of understanding of where they have come from, whence they have come. This gives a continuity of understanding of the journey of how where we have come from and where we’re going. We want our young people to stand tall and understand that they are kings and queens. The best is yet to come, trust me, the best is yet to come.”

The book incorporates primary and secondary sources, graphics, maps, critical thinking questions, and exam-aligned assessments developed by classroom teachers. Officials said the updates are designed to make lessons more engaging and to link study to real-world experiences.

District Superintendent Jerome Forbes, who oversees Mayaguana, Inagua, Crooked Island, Acklins, and Long Island, said the resource will allow teachers to connect lessons with field trips.

“While in Cat Island we would have weeks that we take the students out on display of plantations where they will look at some of the drawings on the wall in the ship drawings. Having this textbook will be more formalized now. They can now read about it in the book and then go on the field trip to see what they were talking when the writers wrote it. So it’s really awesome that we can do that,” he said.

CR Walker High School student Darnell Ferdinand, who is in the 12th grade, said the update is long overdue.

“I actually feel amazing about it, because being a history student, it has been the curriculum sometimes is difficult to follow, but seeing that it’s being updated, it’ll make history more intriguing and more exciting for other students to learn,” he said.

Copies of the new textbook have already been distributed to schools across The Bahamas.