United Nations has charged Nigerian students to always embrace their indigenous languages, saying any child who did not understand any concepts in his or her mother tongue might find it challenging to understand it in any other languages. Director, United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Lagos, Ronald Kayanja, gave the charge while speaking at the 2017 International Mother Language Day with the theme: “Towards Sustainable Future through Multilingual Education.” This was just as Lagos State government unveiled new learning material on Yoruba Language and culture, for use by the 99 government-owned secondary schools in the Education District 1. Speaking at the event, which took place at Government College, Agege and organized by the UNIC and the Education District, Kayanja, while commending the Lagos State government’s effort in this direction, noted that indigenous languages helped students to understand the beauty of their cultural heritage. “It is very important for students to learn and speak their indigenous languages in school and that is one of the targets Lagos State government is trying to achieve. “Any child who doesn’t understand any concepts in is mother tongue may find it challenging to understand it in any other languages,” he said. According to him, Nigerian languages and culture are very rich, but warned that they could be lost if Nigerian children were not encourage to speak them and understand where they were coming from. “Nigerian languages and culture are very rich, but we can lose them if we don’t encourage our children to speak them and to understand where they were coming from. “I commend Lagos State government for fulfilling number 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said. The Tutor-General and Permanent Secretary, Education District 1, Dr. Folayinmika Ayandele, in his remark, said the aim of state government was to encourage students to cherish their mother tongue. “Henceforth, we would ensure that our school assembly is being conducted in Yoruba Language every Thursday, just like the Lagos State House of Assembly is doing. “No more will our teachers be ashamed to speak our language in our schools, either in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and the rest, which will be a thing of Joy. “I want to encourage our parents to teach and allow the children to speak our indigenous languages because our culture is rich and we should be proud of it,” he said. It would be recalled that the United Nations had set aside February 21st as the International Mother Language Day in 1999 to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
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