The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a new National Language Policy, which makes the mother tongue a compulsory medium of instruction in primary schools. The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who made the disclosure, stated that the policy would take immediate effect. Apart from improving the quality of instruction at the primary school level, the new language policy might have been informed by the need to prevent these languages from going into extinction.
According to the minister, the mother tongue will be used exclusively for the first six years of education and then combined with the English language from Junior Secondary School. The new language policy, the minister says, will be fully implemented when government develops instructional materials and qualified teachers are available. As part of the policy, the mother tongue to be used in each school will be the dominant language spoken by the community where it is located. He also assured that all Nigerian languages are equal and will be treated as such.
While we welcome the introduction of the new language policy in education at the primary school level, we also note that it is rather belated. Sadly, the colonial education we inherited from Britain had done much harm to the development of Nigeria’s indigenous languages. However, the promotion of the indigenous languages, some of which may go extinct, should go beyond making them the medium of instruction in primary schools. Nigeria’s major indigenous languages of Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba can be used in governance, mass media, sports and the law courts alongside the English language. Unfortunately, English language has dominated all aspects of our social and political interactions. The preservation of these languages should go beyond the official pronouncement and linguistic nationalism.
There is need to standardise these languages and make them the language of literature, culture, literacy, business and commerce. Government’s policies and official documents must be translated into these languages. It has become necessary for government to encourage the use of these languages in radio and television houses. Religious organisations should play important roles in the use of these languages in their activities.
The benefits of teaching children in their mother tongue have been established and documented by experts in language teaching and learning. Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Prof. Babs Fafunwa, carried out a study on mother tongue education at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University in the 1970s, which established that children learn better in their indigenous languages. The use of mother tongue in primary schools will ensure a smooth transition from home to school. It makes it easier for children to learn faster and effectively. Studies indicate that teaching the children early enough in their mother tongue encourages them to go to school. Despite the inherent advantages of the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in primary schools, there are obvious challenges in implementing the new language policy in a heterogeneous society as Nigeria with many languages.
Some of the immediate drawbacks of the scheme include dearth of books in these languages as well as having well qualified teachers in them. Effective implementation of the mother tongue policy requires enormous manpower development before the take-off of the programme. There is need to train more teachers in the indigenous languages. The instructional materials for the languages should be made available.
Since the government is aware that the implementation of the new policy will be difficult, let it start by training enough teachers in these languages and producing the needed instructional materials. While the new language policy can be smoothly implemented in monolithic linguistic regions, it will be difficult to implement in multi-lingual regions. Its implementation in our urban areas with pupils coming from multi-lingual backgrounds may likely be a daunting task. But since children have the ability to acquire many languages at the same time, this problem can be surmounted with effective teaching.
We enjoin the federal and state governments to fine-tune the policy before implementation. For instance, an experimental implementation of the new policy can be carried out in some selected urban centres before the take-off of the policy. The education sector is already grappling with many challenges, and does not require additional one. Since education is in the concurrent legislative list in the constitution, let all the stakeholders be carried along in implementing the new language policy. The government should ensure that the dominant languages do not undermine the minority ones to avoid being accused of linguistic imperialism by some ethnic groups.