Burkina Faso’s military government has announced a major overhaul of the country’s history, geography and civic education curricula as part of efforts to “decolonise” education.
Higher Education Minister Moumouni Zoungrana said the reforms were ordered by the Prime Minister and are aimed at correcting content inherited from the colonial era.
Speaking at a government event in Ouagadougou, Zoungrana said Burkina Faso needed to stop teaching its history from a foreign perspective.
He said the revised curriculum would remove descriptions that demeaned Africans and introduce chapters highlighting the country’s values, achievements and historical resistance.
Burkina Faso was a French colony until it gained independence in 1960.
Although the school textbooks have not yet been revised, the ministry has distributed a guide to teachers outlining expressions to avoid and chapters that should be removed or added.
A history and geography teacher in Ouagadougou said students would no longer be taught about European “explorers” in the same way.
Instead, the curriculum would describe them as “invaders” and give greater recognition to African resistance fighters who were portrayed as tyrants or barbarians in older textbooks.
The reform is part of the military government’s broader push to reshape national identity and reduce colonial influence in public institutions.
