Taught in primary school to recall short father on the box (10)
I believe the answer is:
instructed
'taught' is the definition.
('instruct' can be a synonym of 'teach')
'in primary school to recall short father on the box' is the wordplay.
'primary' suggests taking the first letters.
'to recall' is a reversal indicator.
'short' becomes 'curt' (synonyms).
'father on the box' becomes 'Ted' (Father Ted is a sitcom 'on the box').
The initial letter of 'school' is 's'.
'curt' in reverse letter order is 'truc'.
'in'+'s'+'truc'+'ted'='INSTRUCTED'
(Another definition for instructed that I've seen is " Taught".)