In a concerted effort to entrench the use of mother tongue in the classroom in line with the National Policy on Education, the Federal Ministry of Education has commenced train-the-trainers workshop for ‘Reading Facilitators’ on language of the local environment in primary schools in the federal capital territory (FCT).
The Supervising Minister of Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, in his address to open the workshop in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, said that it has been known worldwide that teaching and learning in the mother tongue would lead to better cognitive and academic development of the child.
The Minister, represented by the deputy director, library/Informatics, Mrs. Irene Mbanefo, said that the mother tongue of the child is part of his personal, social and cultural identify, and it engenders the child’s successful learning and portrayal of various social, speech and behavioural patterns.
He said that education programmes, especially Reading and Arithmetic or Mathematics (Numeracy) should be taught in the mother tongue or language of the community of the school, preferably from Kindergarten to primary 2, then transit to English from primary 2 to 3.
‘’Educational researches worldwide have shown that pupils/students learn better through their mother tongue. This is because they will be better able to understand what is taught, analyze problems, and develop an enquiring mind and cultivate critical thinking when taught in their local language.’’
While emphasizing the importance of the workshop, the Minister lamented that we are in an era where a great percentage of the youth are losing their ability to communicate in their mother tongues. This, he said, is an alarming trench which must be halted without delay. This is even as he noted that failure to do so may in future render many of our languages extinct.
He said that the workshop is another milestone in the restoration of a reading culture that will adequately address the peculiar circumstances of the individual and meet societal challenges.
In his address the Permanent Secretary, Dr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, said that the capacity workshop is imperative due to the enormous expectations of the society from the teachers.
Represented by Mrs. Christiana Ogbede, deputy director, Informatics, said that the inability of teachers to entrench a reading habit in their pupils/students over the years has resulted in poor academic performance.
He said that in order to curb the menace, the Federal Ministry of Education has embarked on numerous capacity-building workshops on reading for teachers.
