Thread by @DigiAfricanLang

Today I want to talk about education. Specifically the role of education in this conversation about the use of indigenous languages in Nigeria and other African countries.

When we talk about “education” in Nigeria, the unstated implication is always that we are talking about English language education. When people are called “illiterates” (usually as an insult), it is referring to their inability to speak/write/read English.

The reason, of course, is that we were colonized by the British and ruled for about 100 years, during which time the local languages were systematically denigrated* and “put in their place”. English took over as the means of public instruction/education/politics, etc

And here we are, in 2019, where we can’t imagine knowledge outside of the English frame. If someone is “educated”, we’re usually referring to their competence in speaking/writing English. Not really in their knowledge of a particular skill — as it should ordinarily have been.

It wasn’t always the case. As with many indigenous societies, a lot of knowledge (in medicine, art, language, religion, etc) was passed down, usually orally, to subsequent generations. And to be educated means to be competent in one’s chosen profession.

But for some reason, acquiring English ‘education’ through colonialism also meant letting go of the indigenous knowledge that once benefited the society, rather than adapt them to new knowledge/language. I think the biggest culprit is our public policy on education.

I grew up in the eighties, so much of the problem had already taken root. But I still had a family that spoke the language in the house without shame. But when I went to school, we had to speak English there. Most private schools, till today, have the same policy.

You could NOT speak any other language within the school premises. Or you risked being penalized by flogging or paying monetary fine. We had a Yorùbá language subject, which was the only time the language was allowed, within the class.

The National Policy on Education (1973) made it compulsory to use the child’s home language as medium of instruction for the first six years of life (I believe). But because most schools were private, there was no way to implement it. People did what they wanted.

Only the public schools followed this guideline. And since the public schools were poorly funded, only parents without means took their children there. And thus, the idea of being taught in the local language became welded to the idea of poor and underfunded education.

There was no way to objectively assess the benefit of educating children in the mother tongue in a decent and healthy environment. That is, until Professor Babs Fáfúnwá got government approval to experiment with a six year primary project in the local language: Yorùbá.

I believe Prof. Fáfúnwá’s work was at first theoretical (I found a paper from 1975: researchgate.net/publication/23…) but eventually became practical later in that decade when he became the education minister. He was able to use real-life subjects to test out his proposals.

The result bore out previous hypotheses that this kind of education is better over all for the kids. There are many today around the country (maybe even on twitter) who were subjects of the experiment, who learnt algebra, science, social studies, even English language, in Yorùbá.

But instead of then adopting the policy country-wide, it has become one of those things we only reference to show how things can work, without actually committing to bringing it back.

I have read countless studies that affirm that learning in the child’s first language is best for their education and development. I’ve also read that most immigrant children are set back in their education when they’re first to first learn English. So why’re we still here?

Most of the arguments you hear, especially from parents, include the fear that the kids will lose out on the enormous potentials of English if they don’t start learning it from Day 1. Or that they will be ‘confused’ if they’re exposed to more than one language. Both wrong.

In Nigeria, there’s the added excuse of ethnic suspicion; that educating ourselves in our different languages only divides us. (Our English language use didn’t prevent our Civil War, so there goes that). There also others that the proposal is expensive.

To the earlier excuse of ‘confusion’ or ‘losing out’, I only need to point to Ṣóyinká (first African Nobel laureate in Literature) and Achebe (author of Things Fall Apart) as examples of children who never spoke/wrote English until they were six. Never stopped them, did it?

But their lives and work have been enriched by their own languages (Yorùbá and Igbo, in this case). And both have superb competence in both their L1 and in English. So now what?

And so, today, Nigerian languages are no longer taught in schools (much less used as medium of instruction). But that has neither improved competence in English nor the standard of our education.

And neither has the adoption of English for use in every sphere of life in the country saved us from having to write IETLS or TOEFL whenever we apply to graduate schools abroad. So it seems to me like we’ve lost on two fronts.

It is important to note the irony that publishing in the local language actually thrived under British colonial rule, but crumbled under our civilian democracy — which is to show you that the British aren’t to blame for everything. We also failed ourselves.

I asked colleagues in the US once whether I could be considered a native speaker of English (since I’ve spoken it along with Yorùbá since birth), and the answer was no. Hence why we write the TOEFL which is a test of English as a FOREIGN language. Even in 2019.

So there is an argument to be made for the restoration of Nigerian languages in education and instruction, both as a way to ensure their survival, and as a way to improve educational outcomes. Win-win. Then TOEFL/IETLS won’t feel so much like a rip-off.

Think of any of the classics published in the local language, from Fágúnwà to Ọdúnjọ or Fálétí, they were published between 1940 and 1980 or so. Think of any local publisher that publishes literature in any Nigerian language today. Can't point to one.