To mark today being International Literacy Day themed “Promoting multilingual education: Literacy for mutual understanding and Peace”, Quality Education Development Asscociates (QEDA) hosted a one day roundtable discussion to examine the role of “Youths as Vanguard for Multilingual Education to Achieve Peace and Mutual Understanding.” The event was chaired by Professor Talatu Musa Garba, Director of the Nigeria Center for Reading Research and Development at Bayero University Kano.
The Executive Chair Abia State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Lydia Onuoha in her speech on the significance of this year’s theme stated out of the over 500 languages in Nigeria, only 60 are autographed and 300 risk going extinct. Hence, the need for Nigerians now more than ever, to promote teaching, learning and speaking Nigerian languages
On one of the many challenges of multilingual education in Nigeria, Dr. Olusoji Adeniyi noted parents attitude and the general perception to Nigerian languages which is considered local, thereby encouraging more families to now raise their children using only English language whose fluency is sadly seen as a measure of intelligence.
The solution as shared by representatives of various education bodies/ministries, teachers, media partners, social media influencers and other stakeholders present at the event includes:
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- Mass awareness including a national day of action to correct the existing wrong narrative,
- Realistic measures to be put in place for the implementation of the existing National Language Policy
- Language teachers training etc
For a multilingual nation like Nigeria, multilingual education is in fact a driving force to national unity and peaceful coexistence,QEDA urges everyone to be active advocates for it in their respective spaces.
