The FEF is a major non-governmental organisation that both
analyses issues on Nigeria’s education sector and advocates salutary policies.
Its founder, the late Prof Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, a former
minister of education, who died in 2010, was an earnest and persuasive champion
of the adoption of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in the nation`s
primary schools.
According to a statement by the FEF`s secretary, Muyiwa
Obiyomi, the widow of the founder and the foundation`s chair, Mrs Doris
Fafunwa, said she was heartened to learn that the Nigerian government had
finally adopted a policy long proposed by her late husband.
She expressed hope that policy makers, teachers, parents,
students and other stakeholders would approach the implementation of the new
policy with requisite rigor, wisdom and investment of time and resources.
Mrs. Fafunwa added, “If properly implemented, the policy is
bound to help preserve Nigerian culture and save many indigenous languages from
the threat of extinction.”
She called on Nigerians to be proud of their rich cultures,
urging parents to cultivate the habit of interacting with their children and
wards in indigenous language instead of leaving the implementation of mother
tongue education entirely to teachers.
Mrs Fafunwa added that members of the FEF were willing to
assist policy makers and teachers in making a success of the new policy.
Fafunwa encouraged the FEF to organise series of conferences
to advance the case for adopting mother tongue in childhood education.
Fafunwa pioneered the production of a science programme at
the primary education level in Nigeria, and chaired the “Fafunwa Study Group”
on the funding of primary education.
The group’s report led to the creation in 1987 of Nigeria’s
National Primary Education Commission (NPEC). He wrote that primary school
education in the mother tongue would “deliver students from the shackles of
colonialism, allow for effective and meaningful communication between the
teachers and students within and outside the classroom and also promote the
development of mature judgment by the pupils.”
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