A university don at the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof. Tajudeen Opoola, has charged government to fast-track the implementation of the use of mother-tongue as a medium of teaching in nursery and primary schools in the country to remedy poor academic take-off by pupils at the foundational level of education and prepare them for a bright start at the secondary level.
Opoola, a professor of Applied Linguistic and Dean Faculty of Arts at FUOYE, made the call while delivering the university’s Seventh Inaugural Lecture at the institution’s main auditorium in Oye Ekiti, stressing that the time had come when government must accord indigenous languages their right of place in national development and as a veritable tool in fighting insecurity.
At the lecture presided over by the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sunday Fasina, the dean was of the view that using “Nigerian languages would save the Nigerian-Child the rigour of first learning the foreign languages before mastering science and technological concepts.”
Specifically, he called, on the Federal Government to fully implement the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in Nigeria’s primary schools, saying this would no doubt, promote the Nigerian culture, languages and tradition.
In a Lecture titled: ‘Linguistics And Languages As Scientific Tools For Nation Building: The Nigerian Perspective,’ he examined the significance and imperatives of linguistics and languages as scientific tools as panacea for mirage of socio-economic and political problems bedeviling the country.
Opoola said: “In the world at present, there exists about 6, 000 languages of coping eyes while Nigeria as a nation has over 500 languages and exceedingly more than 250 ethnics/tribes with a population of close to 200 million people.
Tasking African parents, Opoola said, “African parents should complement strives of the education stakeholders in teaching African children in his/her mother tongue. Many private nursery and primary schools in recent times teach French, Chinese and German languages to encourage patronage from African parents whose desire is to make a European, French, or German citizens out of their wards. This is a continental and national disgrace that deserves urgent positive attention.”
Also in attendance at the lecture, were the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Sola Omotola, Vice Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Olubunmi Shittu, other principal officers of the university and some traditional rulers.
