[lg policy] Nigeria: Language in education policy

Sat Oct 8 14:57:39 UTC 2011

Language in education policy
04/10/2011 00:00:00

Abolaji Adebayo

Following this year’s dismal results of WAEC in which only about 30
per cent of the candidates secured five credits, there has been a
public condemnation of the system. Many factors were attributed to the
mass failure. The teachers in secondary schools identified, among
others, lack of reading culture and lack of concentration by students;
laziness on the part of the students and reliance on examination
malpractices, as well as insufficient academic materials in our
schools.

It is disheartening that teachers, who themselves are more prone to
failure than their students, could link the flop to these failure
factors. It was the Ondo State government that revealed the
culpability of its officials recently when some secondary school
principals were tested. The results showed that academic leaders
themselves were worse than their subjects. When the teachers are not
academically fit, the students can never be academically well groomed.

It is a common knowledge that Nigeria does not have a well-articulated
and explicit National Language policy that can be found in any single
document. But it is also a common knowledge that the country has a
national policy for languages in education and, by default and
implication, in the polity.

Various forms of language policies have been adopted at various times
by the governments to encourage and stimulate the growth and
development of its over 400 indigenous languages. Some the policies
are contained in sections 55 and 97 of the 1999 constitution; others
in the National Policy on Education (2004), and few others in the
Cultural Policy of Nigeria.

Section 55 of the 1999 constitution states that: “The business of the
National Assembly shall be conducted in English, Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba
when adequate arrangements have been made therefor.”

Section 97 further states that “the business of a House of Assembly
shall be conducted in English, but the House may in addition to
English conduct the business of the House in one or more other
languages spoken in the state as the House may by resolution approve.”

Like the constitution, the National Policy on Education (NPE)
encourages bi- and multilingualism not only in polity but also in
academics. Section 1 subsection 8 of the NPE encourages children to
learn one or more of the three major languages in Nigeria – Hausa,
Igbo, and or Yoruba other than their mother tongues in the interest of
nation unity. Section 2 sub-section 11 ensures that the medium of
instruction shall be principally mother tongue (MT) or the language of
immediate community (LIC); and to this end, shall develop the
orthography for many more Nigerian languages.

The policy also states that the medium of instruction in pre-primary
and early primary education shall be the MT or LIC. For the early
secondary, students shall be taught in English and will be required to
be taught as subjects, two Nigerian languages, one being language of
the child’s immediate environment, the other being any of the three
major languages. At the Senior Secondary School level, the student
shall be required to learn English and at least one major Nigerian
language.

In 1977, the former Minister of education, Professor Babs Fafunwa put
the use of MT and or LIC into research termed “Ife Experiment.” During
this research, all the school children were divided into two groups –
one a base research experiment, and the other, a control experiment.
The same curriculum was prepared for the two. While the first group
was taught the same subjects that were meant for the latter using
their LIC, the other was instructed all through with English language.
At the end of the teaching-learning exercise, the two groups were
given the same examinations, and when the results were out, the first
group out-performed the latter far beyond the expectation.  The
outcome of the research eventually necessitated the promulgation of
the policy on Education (1977 and revised many times till 2004) which
made it necessary for children to start their earliest education with
their mother tongues or languages of their immediate community as
means of instruction.

Despite this constitutional provision for the use of indigenous
languages in schools, and despite the result of the Ife Experiment and
many other efforts on the viability of using MT or LIC as medium of
instruction in our education system, English continues to dominate the
education system. And this has never done the system all the goodness
it deserves.

MT and or LIC are gradually disappearing in our education system; MTs
are no more relevant in schools either as medium of instruction or as
subjects. The negligence of this core factor in the system outweighs
all others we may insinuate.

The domineering role accorded English language is quite overwhelming
and this can be seen in practically all domains: government and
administration, education, the media, the judiciary, etc. and this has
in reality become a cankerworm in our education system.

In education sector, no student wants to be identified with a local
language not even those who study one of the indigenous languages as a
course in higher institution for the fear of being labeled tribal or
parochial. Some parents do discourage their children from speaking
their mother tongues for the fear that their proficiency in English
would be contaminated; in reality however, such children end up not
speaking good English and also their mother tongues.

To drive up the standard in our education system, the governments
should recruit teachers from top 5-10 per cent of the graduating class
such as it is done in Korea and Finland. And put in place programmes
and technologies that will improve their pedagogical acumen as well as
enhance the students’ reasoning and intelligence. Tony Marinho has
also suggested that brilliant NYSC graduates be deployed to coaching
SSS3.

 Lack of compensation for hardworking students which is another
terrible factor besetting our education system should also be
addressed. In those days, students worked harder to excel just because
they knew they would be properly encouraged with cars and good jobs at
the completion of their academic endeavor. Seeing their elderly ones
with degrees roaming the streets in search of jobs, the students are
not motivated to give academics the required concentration and
discipline. Parents too are not stimulated to give their children full
support any longer or spend their times and money on children’s
education believing that after all, they would become unemployed
graduates.

If we should get our education system right, teaching with mother
tongues and or language of immediate community in primary through
secondary schools should be mandated and teaching of such both in
private and public schools as subjects must be compulsory. That is the
system in other great nations. Russia, Japan, China, etc. are today
great educationally, technologically and socially for the simple
reason that they educate their children in their mother tongues. If
those great nations can base their education system on this policy, I
see no reason why Nigeria cannot do the same after the policy has been
tested okay. Comprehension of language is the most vital element of
development; it breeds full understanding of all other subjects.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/mobile/columnist/21722-language-in-education-policy.html

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