Nigeria: Don Canvasses Implementation of National Education Policy On Arabic Language

[Harold Schiffman]

Don Canvasses Implementation of National Education Policy On Arabic Language


Vanguard (Lagos)


NEWS
7 November 2007
Posted to the web 8 November 2007

By Olubusuyi Adenipekun
Lagos

THE way English language occupies a prominent position in the
country's school curriculum, a university don has equally advocated
for the teaching of Arabic language in all public schools, even if on
optional basis, as provided in the 2004 and 2007 editions of the
National Policy on Education (NPE). This view came from Professor
Bashir Babatunde Oderinde of the Department of Curriculum Studies,
Lagos State University, while delivering the institution's 35th
inaugural lecture last week.

In the lecture which is titled 'English and Arabic In Curriculum Context:

Benefits To The Nigerian Society', Oderinde stressed that because
Arabic came into the school curriculum via the specially established
'Experimental Government Muslim Schools', it did not have the benefit
of universal presence in all schools like English language, adding
that it was unthinkable to expect Christian missionaries to make space
for Arabic teaching as a language in their schools, given the unending
rivalry between Islam and Christianity. The lack of governmental
support for Arabic from the beginning, according to the Professor of
Language Education, has aggravated the problems bedevilling the
teaching of Arabic in the formal curriculum, leading to paucity of
recruits for the language in the schools.

He said: "While teachers of English worry about large classes because
of the compulsory status of the subject, teachers of Arabic lose sleep
over thin classes as a result of the optional status of the subject
and probably its utility value. The attrition rate in the Arabic class
is enormous, whatever the level of study. There was once a debate in
this university on why the resources of other viable courses should be
expended on Arabic, which cannot pay its way".

Oderinde also identifies defective teaching methodology as another
problem bedevilling the teaching of Arabic in the formal curriculum,
stressing that if the teacher gets it right pedagogically, the
attrition would reduce. According to him, conversion to modern
language approaches has been difficult for the Arabic teacher, either
in training or in the field. As a way of arresting the rapidly
declining interest in Arabic language as a school subject, Professor
Oderinde recommends that, apart from teaching Arabic in all public
schools, all Federal Government agencies that are having
responsibility for education, evaluation and placement or curriculum
development and research like WAEC, NECO, JAMB, etc. must employ or
continue to sustain Arabic experts on them.

The syllabus, text books and methods of teaching, he further proposes,
must continue to emphasize and entrench the teaching of the four
language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in that
natural order, stressing that there should be much less emphasis on
translation from Arabic to English and vice-versa at the junior level
of learning the language. As a way of catapulting Arabic to a
prominent school subject at all levels of the nation's education
system, Professor Oderinde canvasses for the empowerment of the
Nigerian Arabic Language Village (NALV), so that it can accomplish the
purpose for which it was founded.

He calls for massive injection of funds into the Village to reduce the
harsh condition of studying there, adding that many universities have,
for many years, stopped sending their students to the inter-university
centre. The LASU don further calls on the National Universities
Commission (NUC), which is charged with enforcing minimum standards in
such institutions, to frown upon the unilateral decisions of the
clients of NALV to deny their students the opportunity to take
necessary courses in the Village in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of their certificate in Arabic.

Another panacea for solving the declining students enrolment in
Arabic, according to Oderinde, is that teachers of Arabic should
professionalize pedagogically and should be regularly sent on well
organized refresher courses on modern language teaching once on the
field with clear rewards attached as suggested for English teachers.
Apart from instituting pre-degree programmes in Arabic, as it has been
done for French, Oderinde also recommends, for other universities in
Nigeria, the LASU model of keeping Arabic in the Department of Foreign
L:anguages and Islamic Studies in the Department of Religion and all
new Muslim universities, though science and technology inclined, must
establish service centres to teach Arabic to all students interested
in being marketable worldwide since they already have English as a
second language.

To popularize Arabic in school curriculum, the Don also opines that
Arabic Governments, directly or through Arab Language Educational,
Social and Cultural Organization (ALESCO), should give financial
assistance to countries (including Nigeria) where Arabic is taught
over its promotion not just for the propagation of Islam. Again,
Arabic by radio should be re-introduced, says Professor Oderinde,
stressing that the radio programme has the added capacity of
indirectly enlightening Nigerians of all faiths that Arabic is not
only the language of the Islamic but also a communicative tool like
any living language.

While teachers should use language games, school club activities
should also be encouraged among Arabic students. The implementation of
the above recommendations is, to Oderinde, very important because of
the benefits of Arabic in curriculum context to the Nigerian society.
The first benefit of Arabic is that it is both a foreign and an
indigenous language in Nigeria. This is apart from its more popular
quality of being the language of the Qur'an and a lingua franca of
world Muslims. He also states that a good knowledge of Arabic will
assist in understanding and unraveling more Arabic loan words in
Nigerian languages, particularly Hausa and Yoruba.

Another benefit derivable from Arabic in curriculum context, according
to Oderinde, is that, when properly taught to all (Muslims and
non-Muslims alike), it has the potential of reducing the mutual
'hostility and suspicion' between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria




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