[lg policy] Nigeria: Before Indigenous Languages Go Extinct

[Harold Schiffman]

Nigeria: Before Indigenous Languages Go Extinct: editorial

Government must take concrete steps to enforce the learning and teaching of
mother tongue

In an attempt to preserve Nigeria's indigenous languages, the federal
government enacted the National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1977. Section
1 (8) of the policy emphasises that the federal government "shall take
official interest in, and make policy pronouncements on the teaching of the
indigenous languages, instead of concerning itself solely with English
Language". However, in many Nigerian schools, what you find written boldly
is "vernacular speaking is prohibited", a repudiation of that same policy.

That perhaps explains why most of the studies that have been carried out
revealed that majority of Nigerian children cannot speak the language of
their parents. This, as we have stated on this page several times, has
nothing but dire consequences for the country because as our indigenous
languages face extinction, so are other aspects of our culture, including
history, traditions and values. One of the ominous signs of danger today is
the incremental loss of our rich arts forms, particular in music, dance and
fashion as our youths have taken to the Western genre, threatening our
cultural identity as African people.

Since embedded in our indigenous languages is our rich culture, history,
traditions, and values, government must take deliberate and concrete steps
to protect them by enforcing the national policy on education with regard
to learning and teaching of mother tongue. That must be the starting point
because education is the base of the future of every society.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201610280622.html


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