LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION AND BASIC EDUCATION IN FOSTERING EARLY SCHOOL TEACHING AND LEARNING IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Research has long found out that the use of children's first/home languages is the most effective approach to teaching children to read and to write. In situations where the children's first language or mother tongue is not used for reading instruction, those who support improvement in reading can share benefits of a first language or native language based approach to reading instruction. It is in the context of this assumption, that this paper looks at the Nigerian language of instruction policy in the first three years of primary school education and suggests insistently that the immediate language of the people should form the bases of instruction and in places where many languages are used, a contextual analysis that includes language mapping is highly recommended for instruction to complement the success of Nigeria's goal for the focus of Education For All (EFA) and a realistic attainment of basic education as a global agenda by 2030.