Talks to hold on Yoruba as learning medium in SouthWest

Plans have been concluded by the Lagos State House of Assembly to promote the speaking and compulsory teaching of Yoruba Language in all schools in the Southwest region of the country.

In addition, the move is also aimed at encouraging all the legislative houses in the states that make up the region to compulsorily conduct some of their plenaries in Yoruba Language.

Towards this, a Yoruba Summit has been scheduled for Lagos on Thursday, June 2, 2016, where stakeholders, scholars, experts and the region’s political leaders, including the governors would participate in a series of lectures, expected to lead to an agreement on how to achieve the set goal.

Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Olanrewaju Ogunyemi in company of Professor Adeniyi Harrison of the Linguistic Department of the Lagos State University, who disclosed this to journalists at the Assembly Complex, lamented that Yoruba Language like Latin, was going into extinction and said the summit is part of conscious measures to halt the ugly trend.

According to him, “The National Policy on Education in Nigeria lays emphasis on the importance of teaching local languages in schools. Most Nigerian parents discourage their children from speaking local languages, but they speak their indigenous languages in Germany, Russia, France and other countries of the world.

“We observed that our local language is not being taught in our schools. So we are organising a stakeholders’ meeting on the importance of Yoruba Language in the South West states of Nigeria. After the summit, we still go round to ensure that there is compliance in all the schools in the state,” he said.

Ogunyemi who disclosed that participants would be led by the famous authority in Yoruba Language, Professor Akinwunmi Ishola further stated that dignitaries such as Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos, Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, Alake of Egbaland, Oba Gbadebo Adedotun, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi and many other prominent Yoruba sons and daughters would be in attendance.

He said measures would be put in place to enforce the outcome of the summit, especially among private schools in the region especially those that may want to flout the decisions reached at the summit. The measures he said would include withdrawal of operating licences of any recalcitrant private schools.