EXAMINING THE LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION FOR SUSTAINABLE BASIC EDUCATION IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined language of instruction for sustainable basic education in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study examined the effects of language of instruction for sustainable development basic education in Lagos State and determine the factors militating against the implementation of the language policy in Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design where questionnaire was used to acquire necessary data for the research work. Population comprises of all primary schools in Ibeju Lekki Local Government, Lagos State. Simple random sampling technique was used to select ten (10) Primary Schools in Ibeju Lekki Local Government area of Lagos State. Ten (10) teachers were randomly selected using simple random sampling technique from each of the chosen school to make a total of one hundred (100) as sample for study. Two (2) research questions were raised and answered in this study. To test the reliability of the instrument, five (5) Primary schools' teachers were selected randomly who are not part of the sample population and the value of 0.77 was obtained as correlation coefficient which is reliable enough for this study. Data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and simple percentage statistical tool. The research findings revealed that, language of instruction is a good indicator and predictor of sustainable Basic Education in Nigeria, therefore, the language policy statement for the lower primary level of education will continue to be a mere statement of intention, not practicable in the classroom until the language of instruction is been considered as immediate language of the pupils for the sustainable education in Basic level of Education. Therefore, it was recommended that, government, educators, parents and the public in general should be adequately sensitised about the language policy on education. Parents and pupils should be enlightened on the importance of upholding their mother tongue in order to enable them change their attitude towards indigenous languages both mother tongue and language of the environment.

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