A civil society organization, peacebuilding organization, Foundation has commended the federal government of Nigeria for adopting the mother tongue as language of instruction for students in primary schools.
In a statement by the executive director of the group, Abdulrazaq Hamzat said the policy is a welcome development because no truly advanced and developed nation attained a level of development educationally without using their mother tongue as the language of instruction for teaching.
According to Hamzat, even developing nations making progressive strides like China, India, Japan and others are doing so, with their mother tongue being the language of instruction in their schools and with the adoption of this policy in Nigeria, the country will no doubt advance the competence and understanding of its young population academically.
“Researchers including late Professor Sophie Oyewole established the nexus between mother tongue and comprehension in children and they worked all their lives to see Nigeria position itself on this developmental path we are glad that the government finally saw reason to pursue this bold action in the interest of the nation.
Recall that the federal government approved a new National Language Policy which makes the mother tongue a compulsory medium of instruction for public primary school pupils.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, revealed that the mother tongue will be used exclusively for the first six years of education, while it will be combined with English Language from Junior Secondary School.
He said even though the policy has officially taken effect, it can only be fully implemented when government develops instructional materials and qualified teachers are available.
Adamu explained that the mother tongue to be used in each of the schools will be the dominant language spoken by the community where it is located.
The minister added that the government is prepared to preserve cultures and their peculiar idiosyncrasies, stressing that so much has been lost due to the extinction of some local languages.
He assured Nigerians that all Nigerian languages are equal and will be treated as such.
The group, therefore, called on all state governments to quickly implement the policy at the state level in the interest of speedy educational growth and development.
