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<a href="http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73060:stakeholders-flay-govt-policy-on-english-language&catid=634:education&Itemid=695" class="contentpagetitle">
Stakeholders flay govt policy on English Language </a>
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Wednesday, 12 January 2011 00:00 </span>
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Nigerian Compass </span>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><em><img src="http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/images/stories/General-Items3/learning_under_trees.jpg" align="left" border="0">In
a fresh move to redress the trend of mass failure in school, especially
in English Language and Mathematics, the Federal Government has
unfolded plans to replace English Language with English Studies. But
stakeholders say such move will not address the problem. KAYODE
OLANREWAJU, YEKEEN NURUDEEN, AZEEZ FOLORUNSO and KEHINDE ADEGOKE report </em></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">THE Federal Government is uncomfortable
with the alarming rate of students’ failure in core subjects such as
English Language and Mathematics at the Senior School Certificate
Examination (SSCE).</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To address this problem, the Federal
Government last week, spoke of plans to replace English Language with
English Studies in the secondary school curriculum.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This, according to the Education
Minister, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufai, who unfolded the government’s
initiative at a meeting with heads of agencies under the ministry, will
not only reduce the incidence of mass failure but also improve the
reading culture among students.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </p>
<p> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">She expressed optimism that the
initiative would yield the desired results and checkmate the anomaly
that over the years had dogged the education system.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In the results of the November/December
2010 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE)
released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in December
last year, only 20.04 per cent of the candidates who sat the examination
obtained credit in English Language, Mathematics and at least three
other subjects.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In 2008 and 2009, the percentage stood at 23.54 and 21.96 per cent respectively.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The scenario is more worrisome with the
National Examination Council (NECO), which recorded about 18.7 per cent
in its May/June 2010 SSCE.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Faced with this appalling situation, the
minister said: “Come 2011 academic session, English Language as taught
in schools will now include some portions of literature and will now be
called English Studies.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“The move, when properly articulated,
will check mass failure in our schools among students in English
Language and will go a long way to encourage students to read more,” the
minister had told the gathering.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">However, stakeholders are divided over
this move, which they consider as another policy somersault and lack of
will power on the part of the Federal Government to admit its failure to
give the country qualitative education.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Itsejua Sagay, a Professor of Law, said,
“I cannot understand why government in this country would not want to
take responsibility for its failure. If we had a government that is
ready to take responsibility, it would not believe in policy somersaults
but would be ready to admit its failure and find immediate solution.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“What do they meant by changing from
English Language to English Studies. What are they going to achieve with
this? Why is our government dodging the need to make our children
proficient in their studies? All these policy somersaults will lead us
to nowhere, because they are distractions which will do more harm than
good for the nation’s education sector.”</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To address the ugly development, he
maintained that teachers must be well remunerated, schools must be
adequately equipped with up-to-date training facilities, while training
and retraining of teachers must not be compromised.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">For students to be proficient in English
Language, the government should stock school libraries with books rather
than playing lip service to education development.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mr. Iloh Stephen, a communication expert,
argued: “What is the essence of English Studies without functional
libraries in schools?”</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He recalled his secondary school days at
Ajuwa Grammar School, Okeagbe-Akoko in Akoko North-West Local Government
Area of Ondo State; how their Principal, Chief Guy Garguilo, made
Library an integral component of the school curriculum.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stephen reminisced: “Then, Library was a
period on the timetable for Form One and Two and attendance was taken
very seriously, because that class was being supervised by the principal
himself. He would lead us to the library and read some novels to us.
Apart from this, it was compulsory for every student to borrow books at
least on two-week basis.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“The principal on weekly basis would go
to the borrowers’ list to check for students who had not borrowed books
in those two week. he would force such students to borrow books; and
after reading them, they would be asked to narrate what they read to
Garguilo. That was the routine.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“It was a competition among the students
as we were reading novels as Treasure Island, Animal Farm, James Hardley
Chase collections, Mills & Boons, African Writers Series, among
others. Because of this, we had many of the students obtaining A1 in
English Language.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“Going through our secondary schools
today, how many schools have well-stocked libraries, not to mention
having Library as part of their curriculum and timetable. These, among
others, are the issues the government should address and not merely
change the nomenclature of the subject.”</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">An English teacher in one of the
secondary schools in Lagos, who does not want his name in print, argued
that government is merely creating additional problem for the system.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“Many of the students go to school
without books; even the ones they have they do not read. Teachers are
more or less spoon-feeding the pupils.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Though he affirmed that English Studies
has already been introduced at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) level,
he said he believed the failure level would increase rather than
decrease.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“If the children who could not read or
write simple English are now subjected to or confronted with literary
terms and literature, which will be too cumbersome for them, what then
will the result be?” He asked.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But an official of the Nigerian
Educational, Research Development Council (NERDC) explained that what
the Federal Government want to do is expose pupils to all the
ingredients of the language such as composition, grammar and literature.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He maintained that it would be bad for students to study the language without knowing its components; hence the new initiative.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Alhaji Musa Talle, National President,
National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), is not
impressed with the new Federal Government initiative either.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Does government have to come up with
‘English Studies’ in the place of ‘English Language’ to make pupils
proficient in their reading? How many of the policy makers in the
country today went through ‘English Studies’ before getting to where
they are today? He asked rhetorically.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While restating parents and teachers’
readiness to support all genuine efforts to transform the education
system, Talle said the current initiative by the Federal Government
would be absolutely unnecessary if it would in the end retard the
sector.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What the country needs now, he noted, is
for the teachers and other workers in the sector to be well remunerated,
while schools should be equipped with adequate facilities required to
transform the system.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“No matter what name the government
adopts, if schools have no functional and well equipped libraries, it
would be an exercise in futility,” he stressed.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While describing the government’s move as
another policy somersault, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, the National
President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), wondered
how changing the curriculum from English Language to English Studies
would address the lack of proficiency among the pupils.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He described the current move as another political statement from the government, aimed at cementing their political office.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Awuzie said if the government is really
desirous of addressing the problem, it should convene an education
summit where all stakeholders would meet and brainstorm on the problems
plaguing the sector, and proffer workable solutions to them.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Such meeting, according to the union
leader, would afford stakeholders the opportunity to find lasting
solutions to the problems of education so that all forms of failure that
had been a recurrent decimal from primary to tertiary education levels
would be a thing of the past.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">His words: “The crises in the nation’s
eduction as well as poor proficiency among school children go beyond
curriculum changing. The truth is that we are facing serious problem of
manpower in the sector.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“How many colleges of education and
universities can boast of up-to-date literature for their students? When
the graduates of such institutions are ill-equipped, what are they
going to offer pupils at primary and secondary level?</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“Therefore, it is unfair on the part of
government to be talking about changing the curriculum without taking
into consideration giving the best education to those at the tertiary
level, because they are the one that will train pupils at the primary
and secondary levels.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“The multiplier effect of quality
education at the colleges of education, polytechnics and universities
will be directly felt with better result as well as proficiency of
language among pupils.”</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But Prof. Denremi Razaq Abubakre, former
Vice-Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin and now of the Faculty
of Arts, University of Ilorin, defers.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He believes government’s decision to
replace English Laguage with English Studies is a good one. He believes
it would help students to read wider since the subject will be more
encompassing, as it go beyond merely knowing the rules of the language.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Abubakre said that by the arrangement,
student would now have to read more of the literature, even when such a
student is not an Arts student.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">His words, “It is a good development. And
what we call English Language now is not English Language because the
essence of the the language is for the students to improve their
vocabulary. Students are losing out because they are merely learning the
rules of the language since it is language-based.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“They are busy learning to speak,
comprehension, lexis and structures, composition while the rudiments
that will make one master all these are embedded in studying of the
language more broadly.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“They will be reading more of literature now. And when you are reading literature books, you are improving your language power.”</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br></p><a href="http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73060:stakeholders-flay-govt-policy-on-english-language&catid=634:education&Itemid=695">http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73060:stakeholders-flay-govt-policy-on-english-language&catid=634:education&Itemid=695</a><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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