[lg policy] Nigeria: Minister calls for all-inclusive National Language Policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Minister calls for all-inclusive National Language Policy

 Friday, 04 June 2010 00:00 Yekeen Nurudeen

AS a way of ensuring that indigenous languages are preserved and
promoted, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’I, has
called for an all-inclusive National Language Policy that will
encompass information and communication, culture and tourism as well
as other facets of national development. While making the call in
Abuja at a one-day roundtable on the Development of National Language
Policy for Nigeria, organised by the Nigeria Educational Research and
Development Council (NERDC), the minister urged policy makers not to
restrict the policy to only education.

“The national language policy should not be restricted only to
education; it pervades the terrains of information and communication,
culture and tourism as well as other areas of national development,”
she noted. The minister implored the stakeholders to bring their
expertise, informed positions and patriotism in to objectively chart a
course for a functional language policy. According to Mrs. Rufai, the
National Policy on Education (NPE) provides “that the child be taught
in the mother tongue of her immediate environment for the first three
years of primary schooling,” maintaining that a national language
policy would definitely enhance the actualisation of these ideals.

“You should articulate issues on the policy and provide practical
suggestions that will make it functional and generally encompassing. I
expect a blueprint for the process of formulating a sustainable and
all-inclusive National Language Policy for Nigeria,” she said. Earlier
in his opening remarks, the Executive Secretary, NERDC, Prof. Godswill
Obiorah, noted that the absence of a workable language policy in
Nigeria had hindered the development of language in the country.
Acknowledging the vastness of the country in terms of tterrain and
languages, Obioma explained that the roundtable was aimed at closing
the gap of language policy in Nigeria. He assured the minister that
the blueprint on concrete language policy would be designed within
three months.

He recounted that past efforts by the council had led to the
development of bilingual dictionaries (English-Hausa, English-Igbo and
English-Yoruba) for basic education; completion of the National
Language Survey and Development of Language map of Nigeria;
development of orthographies of 35 Nigerian languages and partnership
with other states on same projects as well as development of
curriculum for nine network languages at the levels of basic and
senior secondary education. In his keynote address, former Executive
Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Munzali
Jibril, noted that current realities indicate that “all Nigerian
languages may be abandoned in favour of English in the next century,
unless drastic measures are taken to preserve and promote our
languages.”

He emphasised the importance of a national language policy, saying “it
is probably unrealistic to expect a national language to emerge in
Nigeria given the negative attitudes to other languages and the
unstoppable onslaught of English.”  Jibril, therefore, called on the
Federal Government to enter into dialogue with state governments,
Parent-Teachers Associations and other stakeholders in order to secure
consensus on the need for the mother tongue to be used as medium of
instruction for the first nine years of education.

While calling on the Federal Government to declare all Nigerian
languages as national treasures which should be developed, preserved
and promoted, the former NUC boss also advocated participatory
democracy and good governance by allowing all segments of the society
to participate in deciding on the issues that concern them.

http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52471:minister-calls-for-all-inclusive-national-language-policy-&catid=43:news&Itemid=799


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