This can be said to be an interesting phase for the ministry of education. Don’t worry so much about the problem of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over half salary, backlog of eight months’ salary and poor funding of the universities, which the ministry of education and its labour counterpart are yet to resolve despite the seeming peace in the nation’s public varsities. In spite of Adamu Adamu’s poor performance in that ministry, especially his mishandling of the ASUU strike and other ills afflicting the education sector, he has tried to redeem his stewardship with the late reintroduction of History in the curriculum of the basic education level. Not done with that, he has moved to expunge Sex Education in the secondary school curriculum for exposing the students to certain things they should not know about their sexuality, sex being a traditional taboo subject in most Nigerian cultures.
That decision to abolish the teaching of Sexuality Education has attracted fiery comments from the proponents and opponents of the dreaded subject. It is surprising that in an age of internet where everything under the sun, including sex, is available to everyone at the press of a button, we still treat sex as a taboo subject, when in actuality it is an open subject. Those using android phones have unfettered access to pornography and other forms of sexual exhibitionism. We should stop pretending the sex is still a taboo subject. Sex Education or Sexuality Education is the right of every child and must be taught in schools, especially in secondary schools for our children to make choices either to indulge in it or abstain for some time. If we don’t teach it, they will learn the hard way through peers and unscrupulous and immoral neighbours. Many parents are not even equipped to teach the subject. And where they are equipped, they may not have the time to teach it. Those who teach it, don’t even teach it very well. There are obvious gaps in parents teaching their children Sex Education. One, it will appear, they are encouraging them to do it or to eat the forbidden fruit. Two, this seeming prodding to do the unthinkable represents a moral burden in parents teaching Sexuality Education. Sexuality Education should not be expunged from the school curriculum. If there are some offensive materials in the curriculum, they should be removed. Sexuality Education is as good as Biology or Health Science.
Not done yet, Adamu Adamu seems to have rediscovered his mission as the minister of education with only a few months to the end of the administration that made him minister. How I wish he had done before what he is rushing to do now. His move to effect the use of mother tongue in teaching in primary schools across the country is good but highly belated. There is no doubt that children learn better and effectively in their mother tongue or native language. There are certain expressions in the native language that the second language cannot be adequate to represent. Creative writers are aware of this language problem. Former Minister of Education, Prof. Babs Fafunwa did a study at the University of Ife that validated the inherent advantages in teaching in native language in the 1970s. That is probably why the study of the three major Nigerian languages has become part of the secondary school curriculum, especially in Federal Government Colleges or Unity Schools.
Before I return to this hot topic, Adamu Adamu is not the only agent of this APC government trying to impress Nigerians with some latter day wonders. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, can even win a prize for that late innovation. Apart from changing the features and mainly colours of the naira, the man has gone to limit the amount individuals and companies can withdraw in a day all in a bid to implement cashless policy in a country where the literacy level is low and where 133 million people are in the poverty net. Cashless policy, the type Emefiele wants to implement now, cannot work in a country where millions of Nigerians don’t even have bank accounts and don’t even have the money to bank. The newly redesigned or repainted naira is yet to be circulated and now we are being saddled with withdrawal limits. Why? The CBN governor should run slowly. There is not much he can still achieve before his term is over.
The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof, Mahmood Yakubu, is doing well and talking tough to ensure a credible poll come 2023. However, there are so many issues he should contend with. The distribution and collection of permanent voters cards (PVCS) is not moving the way it should. I am beginning to suspect that some stakeholders in the polity, including some bad eggs in INEC, don’t want the process to succeed.
The timeframe for the collection of the PVCs may not be enough with the long queues seen in most collection centres. I am afraid that many Nigerians will be disenfranchised by INEC before the poll on account of not being able to collect their PVCs or being subtly denied their PVCs. In Lagos, some good Samaritans pick the PVCs and bring them to their owners in the same way they picked the national identity cards. Already pictures of PVCs being dug from where they were buried have gone viral. The buying and destruction of some PVCs by some political actors is not hidden in some parts of the country. INEC can change the modalities for the distribution of the PVCs by putting more men to the job and creating more channels of distribution. Right now, Nigerians are having the wrong end of the stick in the distribution of the PVCs. To ease the collection of the PVCs, INEC can text people on when and where they can collect their PVCs. They can do house-to-house distribution of the PVCs. They can use mails to distribute these PVCs.
Back to the language discourse in a multi-lingual environment such as ours and the recourse to use mother tongue in teaching in primary schools. This initiative is good but it is coming rather too late. Are we prepared for this language nationalism? Do we have the required number of local language teachers for the smooth take-off of this laudable policy? Are we prepared to resolve the problems that will emanate from the implementation of the policy? Teaching primary school pupils in their mother tongue is ideal for smooth transition from the home education to that of school. But in a multi-lingual and heterogeneous society like ours, its implementation is going to be difficult.
While it will be easy to implement in a uniform language community like the South East, South West and some geopolitical zones in the North, it will be arduous to implement in a community with diverse languages, like the Niger Delta states and North Central zone states. I don’t know how the implementers of this initiative will overcome these challenges and fears of the minority language speakers over linguistic imperialism of the big three or the WAZOBIA domination. Maybe those behind the initiative can also factor Pidgin as one of the native tongues to be used in some speech communities where it is largely spoken. While teaching in local languages in primary schools is being implemented, the teaching of English Language as a subject must not be jettisoned. I say this because the pupils will still contend with English later in their studies in secondary school level and the tertiary level of education to avoid creating language gaps.
However, teaching in our native language is not a magic wand that will solve the problem of falling or fallen standard of education at all levels of our education system. The problem of the sector, even at the basic education level, goes beyond the language of instruction. We have teachers at this level who are ill-motivated and unwilling to teach. Teaching being a low prestige occupation, has seriously been affected by the teaching processes and learning outcomes in our school system. The poverty associated with teaching cannot be salvaged by embarking on language nationalism in education. As far as we don’t have a functional local government system, nothing at this level of government will fare well, including primary school education and the welfare of the rural dwellers. The abject neglect of the third tier of government is why poverty and insecurity are rife in the country. Both the federal and state governments are responsible for impoverishing 133 million Nigerians said to be multi-dimensionally poor. In moving to use Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba languages in teaching in primary schools, there is need for caution and running with less haste.