The Director, Centre for Igbo Studies, CIS, University of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN, Prof. Chris Agbedo, on Tuesday, proposed the use of Igbo Language in teaching across South East Nigeria as one of the ways to save the language from extinction.

Prof. Agbedo, equally appealed to South East Governors to initiate a language policy making Igbo Language a compulsory subject from primary to secondary schools across the geo-political zone

While saying that the mother tongue is the best language for educating children, he added that developed countries such as China, Japan, Germany among others that teach using their mother tongues have advanced in technology and innovations as against African countries who adopted colonial languages as their lingua franca.

“It has been proven since 1963 UNESCO Report that the best form of education is mother tongue education, using the mother tongue to teach the children in classrooms. The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, replicated the UNESCO Report and confirmed it to be true. What they did was to bring a set of pupils and taught them in Yoruba Language from primary 1 to 6. At the end, examinations were conducted and those who were taught using the mother tongue performed better than those who were taught in English Language.

“If you check what is happening in developed countries, you will discover that most of them are doing well in science and technology because they anchored their education on mother tongues.

“If you are teaching a child using English Language for instance, the child has to break two language codes, the first one is English Language, then, the second is the language of the subject you are teaching him. In a situation where the child fails to understand the English Language, he will never understand what you are trying to teach him,” he explained.

Report by Chibuike Ezekwesili

News Editor: Okuh Ikeme

Published by, Okuh Ikeme.