From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and some of its partners have suggested that the mother tongue approach be adopted in teaching and learning in Nigeria, particularly at the basic education level.
UNICEF said research has shown that children learn better and understand more when they are taught in their mother tongue, particularly science subjects at the early stage in life, while second languages are gradually introduced later in life.
UNICEF Nigeria Chief of Education, Saadhna Panday-Soobrayan, who spoke at a seminar in Abuja, on Wednesday, that was jointly organized with USAID on scaling foundational literacy and numeracy in Nigeria, said that millions of children are lost, in interest and attendance, along the way of the basic education system due to language barrier.
She made reference to several developed countries of the world where teaching in the mother tongue is in their basic education system to improve the literacy and numeracy of their young ones.
“Studies and evidence across the world have shown that when you teach children in their mother tongue especially at age 1 to 3, they learn better and faster. The use of the mother tongue, unarguably, assists the children to acquire basic numeracy and literacy skills. You can then switch to a second language slightly later in life. Obviously, improved results are achieved with this approach,” she said.
“In addition to that, teachers should be trained to teach in local languages. There should also be books and other tutorial materials produced in local languages. These would also go a long way in solving the literacy problems in Nigeria.”
She, however, predicted that expected improvement in children’s literacy and numeracy won’t come as soon as expected because of poor financial investment in the education system, particularly at the basic level.
“Nigeria is spending too little on education. On average, 1.2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country is being spent on education when the international benchmark was four to six per cent. Even the available money is not spent well,” she said.
“A larger percentage of the allocated funds are spent on higher education when children at basic education level can neither read, write nor count. In nutshell, significant investment is required in Nigeria’s education system, particularly at the basic level.”
She also identified the challenge of the safety of the schools which has discouraged parents and their children from attending schools. “Many children are not in school because the schools are unsafe for them. Insufficient teachers and teaching materials too are some of the challenges,” she added.
Grace Malgwi of USAID, in a presentation on early-grade reading, highlighted the steps and measures adopted by USAID and its partners to contribute to the efforts to improve numeracy and literacy rate among children.
She appealed to governments at all levels to increase investment in the education system, particularly basic education, and take other measures that would bring more children back to school and other improve their numeracy and literacy levels.