Nigeria’s ‘mother tongue’ education policy hasn’t gained much ground 30 years after

Thirty years after it was introduced, Nigeria’s ‘Mother Tongue’ education policy has failed to take root as pupils in many parts of the country’s urban areas still receive instruction in English Language.
This is contrary to the stipulation of the National Policy on Education initiated in February 1990 by Babs Fafunwa, then minister of education, that local languages should be the media of teaching in the first three years of primary education.

The proponents of the policy had argued that “Nigeria cannot hope to achieve any meaningful development if her technology, culture and efforts are taught in a foreign language”.

Olusegun Badaki, an associate professor at the University of Maiduguri, said in a telephone interview that any language other than the mother tongue in the formative years of the child is inhibitive.

He said it has been scientifically proven that education ought to be provided in the best possible manner to millions of children who have never come across any other language except their mother tongue, adding that studies have blamed high primary school dropout rate (40-60 percent) on, among other things, the premature introduction of English as a language of instruction at the primary school level.

But BusinessDay checks show that pupils in many schools across the country’s urban centres take instruction in the first three years of education in English.

In Lagos particularly, teachers who spoke to BusinessDay said the policy could not be sustained due to the mixed background of the pupils who are mostly better exposed to English Language than their native tongues, thus making it easier to instruct them in English.

Other challenges, they say, include the multi-ethnic nature of Lagos, mixed parental background of some pupils, and teachers’ apathy.

Even in schools where the policy seems to be in force, the local language is inter-changed with English.
At Odi-Olowo Primary School in the Mushin Council Area of Lagos, Primary I and II pupils had Arithmetic and Social Studies instructions in English with simultaneous explanations in Yoruba.

At Ajeromi Central Primary School, the first two grades answered questions in English.
The situation was not different at Army Children School, Ikeja Cantonment, and at Wasinmi Community Primary School, as every subject was found to be taught in English in the first three years.

At Oye Primary School in Mushin, a teacher, Mrs. Olaniyan, introduced the day’s Health Science lesson in Yoruba and later explained in English and the Primary I pupils’ response to the lesson was as good as if they had been taught in English.

Olawunmi Ajayi, headmistress of the school, emphasised the unique nature of Lagos as distinct from rural Nigeria, where the child comes in contact with English for the first time in the classroom.

Majority of pupils in the school, Ajayi explained, communicate in English even at home more than they do in their mother tongues.

The situation in Lagos is such that English itself often becomes the mother tongue because of the frequency with which it is spoken, she said.

Some administrators of education districts described the policy as ideal, but said many things went wrong thereby affecting the realisation of the policy.

One of such obstacles, they explained, is the absence of an intensive induction for teachers in the three main Nigerian languages (Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo).

But some parents who spoke to BusinessDay said the policy could not work because “most teachers themselves cannot teach well in the mother tongue”.

This situation is taking a toll on the Nigerian pupil.

Badaki of University of Maiduguri said unlike his or her counterparts elsewhere in the world, the Nigerian child does not have a continuity of experience from home to the school.

“Research has considerably shown that there is little or no continuity between the African child’s home experience and his school experience – a situation that does not arise in the Western countries, where, in most cases, the child’s school experience is a continuation of his or her home experience and exposure,” Badaki said.

MARK MAYAH