Federal Government to adopt indigenous languages to teach science subjects

The Federal Government has commenced moves aimed at ensuring that mathematics and science subjects are taught using local languages in schools across the country. To achieve this, it constituted an inter-ministerial committee on Tuesday, on the use of local languages to teach science subjects and mathematics in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, while inaugurating the committee in Abuja, said the nations that had done well in the world used their indigenous languages in teaching their children mathematics and science subjects at primary and secondary school levels. Citing the cases of some countries such as China and India, the minister said that technological advancement in those countries was fast because mathematics and science subjects were taught in their indigenous languages. He said, “For us to build the country of our dreams, for us to make Nigeria a truly great nation, a nation that is able to feed and house its citizens, a nation with a stable currency, we must embrace science and technology. Nigeria will remain a dependent nation if the citizens do not embrace science and technology because no nation can become great without science and technology.” Onu said his ministry was determined to work closely with the Federal Ministry of Education to achieve this target. He said, “Nigeria has produced a Nobel Laureate in Literature, we have not yet produced one in science and we are anxious to produce a Nobel Laureate in science. The only way we can do it is to make sure our children are interested in pursuing careers in the areas of science, technology and engineering. Onu said his ministry would work hard to ensure that local languages were developed to a level where they could be used effectively to teach mathematics and science. He said, “We have to write textbooks in these languages which will be developed to enable us teach mathematics and science and also to train teachers who will now use the developed languages to teach the children in the primary and secondary school levels.” In his address, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, said the move was an important and key innovation. Adamu, who was represented by the director overseeing the office of the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Hussein Adamu, said the use of local languages in teaching would go a long way in facilitating the breakthrough of the nation in the area of science and technology.