How schools, parents frustrate policy on local languages

Though the National Policy on Education makes the teaching and learning of indigenous languages compulsory in the nation’s school system, OLUNIKE ASAOLU reports that some parents and private schools are frustrating the policy.

At my friend‘s house one day, I met his son, whom I greeted in Yoruba. The child did not respond, so, I asked his father if his son did not understand Yoruba. His response was ‘No, I don‘t want my children to speak any local language for now because it affects their learning and speaking of good English.‘ I tried to persuade him to change his stance, but he insisted on his point,” said a parent, Mr. Ganiyu Lamidi.

Lamidi said effective use of a local language depended mostly on parents. According to him, “People like my friend are everywhere in Nigeria. They frustrate the usage of these languages in their homes. If a child is not allowed to speak his local language, how will he understand if he is taught in school. They have forgotten that education starts from the home.”

Investigations show that in some private schools, parents determine what should be learnt or taught.

A proprietress of a school in Lagos, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that parents had once warned her not to teach their children any of the local languages.

“This is what obtains in our society today. Some parents don‘t even speak these languages to their children. Even the uneducated parents prefer English and in the process, they confuse their children with bad English or Pidgin English,” she said.

But while some parents in Nigeria discourage their children from speaking local languages, those abroad prefer Nigerian languages to any other.

A mother resident in the United Kingdom once said, “I spanked my child and I was arrested by a policeman. When my child was asked to say what I did for her, I quickly told her in Yoruba that if she dared tell the policeman what happened she would not be allowed to follow me home. She just kept quiet. When the policeman asked me what I said, I told him that I was muttering out my thoughts in my language.”

The National Policy on Education and the language policy make it compulsory for a Nigerian child to learn the three national languages – Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba in the first three years of their primary education.

The policy provides for mother-tongue and\or the language of the immediate community as the language of initial literacy at the pre-primary and junior, primary levels, and of adult and non-formal education. The three major (national) languages - Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba as the languages of national culture and integration. English - the official language - as the language of formal literacy, the bureaucracy, secondary and higher education, the law courts, etc. Selected foreign languages especially, French, and Arabic, as the languages of international communication and discourse. These are the languages for which language villages have been set up.

In terms of unstated policy, the NPE policy on languages advocates multilingualism as the national goal. It recognises English as the de facto official language in the bureaucracy and all tiers of formal education and treats Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba as potential national languages which are to be developed and used all through the formal educational system.

A former minister of Education, Prof. Babs Fafunwa, believes teaching of pupils with mother tongue will enhance learning and cultural development.

When our correspondent visited some private schools last week, it was discovered that Yoruba class was held once in a week, while some schools were still looking for language teachers.

In some private schools, parents determine what a school should teach their children. According to the Head-teacher, Alpha Nursery and Primary School, Lagos, Mr. Erifeta Efe, ”Parents have actually warned that vernacular should not be taught in the school. They frown on it. They prefer English language and even French because they see them as international languages.

”Also, time allocated for the teaching does not give room for adequate learning or understanding of these languages. But since government has made it compulsory, we teach Yoruba in our school, once in a week. Shortage of language teachers also affects time allocation.”

Still talking on attitudes of parents, Corporate Care Manager, The Scholastichall School, Lagos, Mrs. Philippa Cisse, said, ”We have parents, who don‘t encourage the use of local languages at home. We teach them in school, but parents don‘t do any follow-up on the teaching of local languages at home. Parents are a factor in language usage.”

”Some children have good ears for language. They can easily pick on what is being taught in school. There used to be a Turkish boy, Kyrah Onden, in our school who could read 1-10 in Yoruba. It was possible because of the Yoruba classes he was attending and also he had good ears for the language. When the boy came to Nigeria, he could not speak English but gradually he was able to speak communicable English.”

In this school, a six-year-old Chinese boy in Grade I, Carl Algelo Baylon was asked if he understood Yoruba. He did not only sing in Yoruba, he also identified parts of his body in Yoruba.

Cisse also said the environment a child grew up would determine the language spoken there. ”The environment a child grows in affects him positively in the chosen language.

”Our problem in Nigeria is because we don‘t have a specific indigenous language like other countries. For instance, in South Africa, they have different languages but have a specific language called Afrikaans, which everybody understands and speaks. But in Nigeria we have only one language, which is not indigenous, but is made formal, that is, English.”

She advised parents not to discourage their children who pick on any language. ”What they should do is to balance it with commonly used language. If an Igbo or a Yoruba girl cannot speak her indigenous language, then there is a problem. And if she can speak her dialect without adequate knowledge of the universally accepted language, there is also a problem. There should be a balance of both. Parents should encourage both, but try to get the one that will be more useful for the level of the child at the particular time.”

Also a Yoruba teacher, Mrs. Omolara Adekunle, said if we allowed the trend of non-teaching of local language to continue, our languages would not only die but our cultural heritage would also be affected.

She said, ”Parents should stop discouraging their children from learning their cultural heritage. Speak your dialect to your child right from a tender age. Even using it every day helps the child a lot. What parents don‘t know is that a child that understands his dialect, understands English better.”

A head-teacher in Jack and Jill School, Lagos, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Elobuike, said language would help to bring out what a child was being taught. ”As a teacher, you know the level of mentality of your pupils. Some of their parents use purely local language to communicate at home, so whatever you are teaching them in class, you can use local language to interpret to those who are just learning English. Local languages aid teaching.

”Though in our school, we don‘t use local language, when we are teaching Yoruba, we interpret it in English. But my advice to parents is to teach the local language very well at home, because in school, English is the major language used.”

Recently, the newly appointed boss of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Dr. Barclays Ayakoroma, said parts of his major assignments was to create more awareness about the mother tongue and culture.

Speaking during his first official visit to the institute‘s Lagos office recently, Ayakoroma urged parents to speak their indigenous languages to their children to preserve their cultural heritage.

Another parent, Mrs. Yetunde Kolawole urged government to enforce the full implementation of the language policy. ”Government should make a law that any school, either public or private that does not teach indigenous language as stipulated in the policy should be sanctioned,” she said.