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Lagos govt, NERDC ask private schools to teach local languages http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/features/education/edu129122005.html By Olubusuyi Adenipekun Posted to the Web: Thursday, December 29, 2005 Majority of private secondary schools in the country are not conforming with the National Policy of Education (NPE) which stipulates that Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages should be taught as second language in Junior Secondary School (JSS). According to this policy, one of these three major Nigerian languages is expected to be offered as a core subject by none indigenes learning it as second language which is aimed at enabling the students to appreciate other peoples' culture as a way of forging national unity among the various ethnic groups in the country. But, inspite of the noble objective of the policy, majority of private schools do not teach their students the local languages. Lagos State commissioner for education, Professor Olakunle Lawal says much of this at the critique workshop on textbooks written in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba recently organised by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). He says: "We have many private schools in Lagos State where they only teach in English and do not teach the local languages. The private schools see their institutions as the place where English Language has to be taught in order for people to appreciate them. There is also acute dearth of teachers of these local languages. We appeal to these private schools to ensure that the National Policy on Education programme on Nigerian Languages are adhered to." Lawal noted further that the refusal of private schools to comply with the NPE has resulted into a situation whereby "we are losing our values as our children cannot speak our languages at home, adding that by speaking our languages we are invariably projecting ourselves which will make other peoples to value us." To ensure that the NPE on Nigerian languages are widely implemented at all levels of the nation's educational system, Lawal said the use of the books on the local languages should not be limited only to junior secondary schools but should also be extended to vocational centres as well as the universities. The NERDC has however taken a decisive step at ensuring a total implementation of the NPE by developing the curriculum titled: "National Curriculum for Junior Secondary Schools: L2 Nigerian Languages " - for the teaching of the three languages as second language in JSS in Nigeria. And in a bid to assist the teachers in the use of the curriculum and also encourage the learners of the subject, NERDC went into writing textbooks for the second language programme. The textbooks written, which are based on the curriculum for the teaching and learning of Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba as second language, are as follows: Book 1 for JSS1, Book 2 for JSS 11 and Book 3 for JSS 111 - all of which have Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba versions. According to the Executive Secretary of NERDC, Professor Godswill Obioma, a sincere implementation of the NPE on Nigerian languages is very important because education can only be meaningful if it is taught in the language of the pupils, adding that NERDC will leave no stone unturned to empower the network of educational resource centres in the country to use the books in their centres by teaching teachers. Says Obioma of the efforts of NERDC at empowering those who will implement the NPE on Nigerian languages: "We have education resource centres in Nigeria which are state based. They are arms of the ministry of education. The law empowers the NERDC to coordinate the activities of these centres. We have a body called Network of Educational Service Centre in Nigeria (NESCN). I chair that conglomerate of body of education resource centres. Our focus is to do teachers' mentoring, teachers' support, instructional materials development, customation of curriculum." He stressed further that the 2006 strategic workplan of NERDC is to ensure a proper implementation of the NPE, adding that NERDC had earlier done a workshop on the eradication of poor quality textbooks, a roundable he said is to be used as a building bloc for the formulation of the national book policy. According to Obioma, "the establishment of a National Book Council will ensure the production of quality books, a council that will operate at the same level with NAFDAC. We are to organise community-based workshops. Our council has the plan of establishing teachers' project and we will play a great role in building teachers' capacity. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get to your groups with one click. Know instantly when new email arrives http://us.click.yahoo.com/.7bhrC/MGxNAA/yQLSAA/TpIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
