The Nigerian government has announced a policy aimed at promoting the teaching of primary school pupils in local languages rather than in English.
The National Language Policy, a new framework endorsed for implementation by the Nigerian government, aims at encouraging the teaching of local languages to primary school students rather than English.
This implies that, despite English serving as the nation’s official language and the common language of instruction and learning in all educational institutions, the first six years of primary school instruction will be delivered in the student’s native language.
There are more than 600 languages spoken in Nigeria. The mother tongue would then be blended with English at the junior secondary level after local languages were used exclusively for the first six years of school.
The late Professor Sophie Oluwole once shared her extensive knowledge and ideas on the value of local language instruction for pupils.
She claimed that if someone can read and write in English but not in their native tongue, they are illiterate. She stated that the majority of college students are unable to converse in their native tongues.
“Education is about learning knowledge, not obtaining a credential. And the majority of knowledge is acquired from the society and community around you,” she continued.
She learned that a study conducted in Kenya found that white children perform better academically than their black counterparts because black kids learn their native tongues until they are five years old before starting to study English in school, which will cause them to drop out.
They can’t afford to lose their languages, said Oladele Dosunmu, CEO of Stepwise International Training Services (SITS) Limited, noting that it’s likely all they have left.
“I see a trend where modern parents would prefer their children speak English instead of their local language of Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa as in the case in Nigeria. With all the outside influences, we are replacing our mother tongue with English and calling our indigenous language vernacular,” he lamented.
