At last, at least one of our states is getting it right on the education.
For far too many years, our objectives seem to me to be that we want to be like the white man: speak like the white man; eat like the white man; dress like the white man and even read like the white man. It has been not only fashionable to know what the white man knows, but also to out-know him about his culture.
Our culture, literature, religion, etc., even the food we eat, you see, are far inferior to the white man's, our children are told on a daily basis.
Let me share one secret with our educators and those rushing their wards to private schools where only the English language is used as a language of learning: WE WILL NEVER BE LIKE THE WHITE MAN. The reason: we are not white people. We are Africans. And there are far too many beautiful things about being African that we need to start teaching our children very early in life – IN THE LANGUAGE OF THEIR BIRTH.
One of the objectives of primary and secondary education, besides READING, 'RITING AND 'RITHMETIC, is to EXPOSE A CHILD TO HIS SURROUNDINGS - the names of birds, http://yoruba-scipedia.wikidot.com/wiki:ranko-oruk-aw-n-iy animals, plants, etc. He should be able to identify different types of ants, leaves, reptiles, butterflies, http://yoruba-scipedia.wikidot.com/wiki:butterfly-labalaba-animals-ranko etc. while still in the primary school. Later on, he must be able TO MANIPULATE HIS SURROUNDINGS to his own benefit. He should be able to know what comes off a palm tree and how to use them; which leaves are medicinal; different kinds of yam tubers; etc. He should be able to know different types of foods that are available to him using materials available to him within his surroundings.
A child cannot know these things by first trying to learn another man's language. This is like putting the cart before the horse.
Trying to jettison you language is like trying to deny your own existence. It is the most efficient way to psychologically damage a child. You are in essence telling him that he is an appendage of another culture.
The very fact that our children do not know the essence of science http://yoruba-scipedia.wikidot.com/wiki:scientific-method-ilana-eko-imo-jinle is mainly responsible for our lack of scientific and technological development. A child should be exposed to the logic of science as early as his first day in school. Science should be competing for the mind of the child as Religion, local belief systems etc. are doing. He should begin to learn science in his language from the first day in school.
There is nothing political about what Lagos State is proposing. It is my belief that other ethnic nations within this great land of ours will see the logic in this.
BRAVO! LAGOS STATE, OR SHOULD I SAY GBOSA! GBOSA,!! GBOSA!!!.
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