YORUBA INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION: A PANACEA FOR SUSTAINABLE BASIC EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The importance of indigenous language as a medium of instruction in our schools has been a point of discussion in educational sector over the years. Despite the fact that this is clearly written in the National Policy on Education FRN (2004:10) that every child shall learn one of the major Nigeria languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. It is unfortunate that we still find it difficult to implement this in our schools. It is believed that our indigenous language especially Yoruba is spoken by the second-class citizen and this has been one major problem facing our educational sector. Much has been said about the terrible state of our schools ranging from the low quality of our graduates who could not express themselves fluently in the borrowed language of which the language of their immediate environment could have helped them in a great measure if put in place. But up till this moment not much has been done in bringing the level of our education to an enviable state. It is when we go back to the starting point in which learning and teaching will be carried out in our indigenous language (Yoruba) which the colonial education took away from us. In other to have a sustainable basic education and regain our total freedom, we need to embrace Yoruba indigenous language as a medium of instruction. This paper therefore looks into the use of Yoruba indigenous language as a medium of instruction, challenges and way forward.