On Tuesday, The Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode allergely ordered public and private school principals in the state that students should sing the National Anthem in Yoruba Language daily.
A meeting was held with with Principals and Head Teachers of public schools in Lagos by Dr Idiat Adebule, the Deputy Governor, who relayed the directive to them. She said that Yoruba Language would also be made a compulsory subject for students.
She further said, that Wednesdays had been declared ‘Yoruba Speaking Day’ in schools, with all teaching and learning activities from assembly period to closing being done in Yoruba. in her word; ”Governor Ambode wants me to pass this message to you, that henceforth, Yoruba language be made compulsory in both private and public schools, the National Anthem must be sung in Yoruba on a daily basis too, the Egbe Akomolede has done the translation and we will send the copies of the Yoruba version to your schools by Monday so you can begin to teach the students."
”I have also met with the owners of private schools and we have relayed this directive to them. We are also considering translating the textbooks of other subjects into Yoruba Language because I believe that when students are taught in their mother language, learning will be easy and their level of performance will improve.
She also stressed the fact that the state government is passionate about this Law, so we do not lose our language, culture and heritage.
Dr. Adebule said, the Ministry of Education was doing an assessment to ascertain the number of Yoruba teachers that would be required to effectively teach the language in public schools.
In agreement to the development, Lanre Ogunyemi, Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Education, said the development would be beneficial to the younger generation and generations unborn. he further explained that this law has long been embraced by other countries and he gave instances such as in Finland, you must pass the Finnish Language before you are offered admission into high institutions. Same goes for other countries such as Germany, China etc.
So he encouraged everyone to Imbibe the new development and make it succesful.
