STILL ON LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION MATTER

Abstract

The National Policy on Education made express provision for what language to be used in the educational system in Nigeria from the lower to the upper basic education level. Specifically, it made provision for the use of mother tongue or the Language of Immediate Community (LIC) as the language of instruction at the lower basic level with  English being a subject while English changes to being the language of instruction at the middle basic education level. Despite this provision, however, teachers at that level of education adopt the doctrine of necessity in their choice of language of instruction.
Thus, there is a gap between language policy provision and teachers practices in lower basic education level with the implications that the objectives of the policy are not being achieved. Now that the issues of sustainable development goals have become of interest to education at the basic level and the need to promote their achievement at the level is of interest to language educators, it has become
imperative to find out how the matters surrounding language of instruction are being tackled so that sustainable development can be taught and achieved at the lower basic education level. This paper, therefore, examines teachers' Language of Instruction Practices (LIP), the reasons for such practices and what must be done to ensure that the sustainable development goals are achieved through the teachers (LIP) at the lower basic education level in Ibadan, Nigeria