Mother’s Language Day: Fiwasaye’s Principal tasks government on use of mother tongue in school

By Dupson Collins, 21st February, 2023

The Principal of the Fiwasaye Girls’ Grammar School Akure, Mrs Temitope Ojoge has charged government to fast-track the implementation of the use of mother-tongue as a medium of teaching in schools across the country to remedy poor academic performance of students, saying mother’s language will aid quick comprehension of students.

She disclosed this while addressing the students of the college as the world celebrated the 2023 International Mother Language Day with the theme ‘multilingual education – a necessity to transform education’.

The 2023 International Mother Language Day which is the 24th edition was celebrated amidst fun fare as both teachers and students of the school were gorgeously dressed in different traditional attires with series’of programmes to mark the day.

The day is celebrated every year on 21 February; UNESCO reiterates its commitment to linguistic diversity and invites its Member States to celebrate the day in as many languages as possible as a reminder that linguistic diversity and multilingualism are essential for sustainable development.

The Principal said the advantage of teaching students with mother language is enormous if the government of Nigeria can key Into it, adding that mother language is not vernacular as the school teaches the students indigenous languages.

Her words: ” If our government give approval to all schools and allow them to teach students with indigenous languages, it will open the brain of the students to fast learning because they understand their language better”.

While stressing that the time has come when government must accord indigenous languages their right of place in national development and as a veritable tool in fighting social vices in the society, saying country like China is fast developing because of the use of their indigenous language right from primary to university levels.

“Nigerian languages would save the Nigerian-Child the rigour of first learning the foreign languages before mastering other subjects to be taught”.

She called on the government to fully implement the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in Nigeria’s schools, saying this would no doubt, promote the Nigerian culture, languages and tradition.

Mrs Ojoge tasked the parents to continue to speak their languages to their wards at home and allow the school to stand in the position of teaching them English Language.

Meanwhile, the Guest Lecturer, Mrs Funmilayo Steve Oniya said the government, school and parents have major roles to play in ensuring the country’s indigenous languages does not go into extinction.

According to her, “It’s very important to revive mother tongues and prevent it from going into extinction. We must continue to teach our children our language at all times mostly at home. Most of the developed countries of the world like China, France are using their languages to teach their wards from the foundation classes”.