• Academics ask education minister to reinstate 2022 national language policy
Oluchi Chibuzor
Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, says Nigeria should learn from modern economies, including South Korea, India, and China, where early education is driven by indigenous languages.
Otti gave the advice yesterday at the Fafunwa Educational Foundation (FEF) annual lecture and symposium, held in Lagos.
That was as academics called on the federal government to reinstate the 2022 National Language Policy.
Speaking at the lecture, Otti said the focus of this year’s event, the relevance of using mother tongues as the primary language of instruction in early education, was very relevant to the evolution of education in the country’s different constituencies, especially at the foundational level.
He said it was fulfilling that FEF was keeping alive a compelling, research-supported observation made several decades ago by Professor Fafunwa and others that children learned better when taught in indigenous languages.
The governor stated that, while it was fine to disagree with the findings of a research work, it was not acceptable to reject a viewpoint for the simple reason that agreeing with the facts challenged individual biases and ego.
He stated, “If research says that early learners do better when instructions are passed through the vehicle of indigenous languages, my preference would be to identify and address the probable limitations to teaching pupils in their native languages, including inadequacy of skilled instructors that are fluent in the languages or perhaps, the challenge of limited relevance outside one’s own community or maybe region.
“The fears, I have to admit, are real but we may also have to look at a few countries where early education is driven by indigenous languages including South Korea, India and China. In so doing, we may learn a few lessons from the success they have achieved over the years.
“More so, looking at these successful cases would provide some perspectives on how the use of indigenous languages in passing classroom instructions may have shaped the economic and technological exploits of the aforementioned countries on the global stage.”
Otti added, “My position would be that if children and professionals in China suffer no disadvantage from learning in Mandarin, just like their counterparts in India or South Korea who started their learning in indigenous languages, then the fears against the use of indigenous languages for early-stage education in this part of the world may be exaggerated at best.”
He stated, “Well, I am not sufficiently schooled on matters of languages or early childhood learning to make definitive statements on matters related thereto; this perhaps is why I am grateful that we have experts in the room to guide us.
“I am, however, optimistic that the insights to be drawn from today’s interactions would not only serve the purpose of intellectual excitement but would ultimately guide policy decisions as may be relevant.”
In his keynote address, Professor Francis Egbokhare of the University of Ibadan made the case that the “fundamental mismatch between the language of instruction and the mother tongue of the learner sits at the heart of Nigeria’s persistent learning crisis”.
Egbokhare said, “What appears to be poor academic performance may actually reflect language barriers rather than intellectual limitations.
“When children are educated in foreign languages, they may become less able to access the wisdom encoded in their own linguistic traditions.
“Thus, the side-lining of mother tongue in education translates into ‘language loss’ and ‘worldview loss.’”
Professor Angelina Kioko of the United States International University of Africa in Kenya robustly articulated the argument for African nations to take seriously UNESCO’s declaration that, “Every learner has a right to learn in a language they understand.”
A communique issued at the conference stated that the Nigerian Academy of Education had denied the existence of any empirical evidence linking mother tongue instruction to poor learning outcomes.
The communique stated, “Instead, the conference insisted that the major impediments facing mother tongue education arose from weak and half-hearted implementation.
“Such factors as inadequate funding, insufficient teacher training, and lack of instructional materials undermined the proper working of mother tongue learning.”
The communique urged federal and state governments to engage key stakeholders in the educational sector to undertake an incisive investigation of the factors that jeopardised effective implementation of mother tongue education.
It said, “The signatories and endorsers of the communique called on the Honourable Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, to reinstate the 2022 National Language Policy, restoring mother tongue as the fulcrum of the country’s education.
“In addition, they urged state governments, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB), and Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to commit to and initiate mass training of teachers and textbook development for early grade readers in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and other Nigerian languages.”