Strategizing Mother Tongue as Medium of Instruction in Nursery and Primary Schools in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines this policy and its implementation in the Nursery and Primary Schools in Nigeria. This is because the importance of language as vehicle of social cohesion between and among the citizenry of a nation cannot be over emphasised. People that understand one another have confidence in themselves, trust each other and become secured. This condition makes them productive, peaceful and agents of sustainable development. Realizing this, Nigeria policies that mother tongue of the child is to be used to teach him in schools, in the first 4 years of basic education and or at least in the first 3 years of primary school. The paper finally, indicated the problems inherent in the implementation of the policy and recommend solutions to them by proposing a language medium curriculum design to be operated in Nursery and early primary schools in Nigeria