A Non-Governmental Organisation, Regen Education and Leadership Initiative, RELI, has commenced training of teachers on the use of mother tongue to teach mathematics in primary schools.
The training workshop tagged: Effective use of the Mother Tongue in Mathematics Education, held at Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, Osogbo, Osun State, focused on the use of Yoruba language as classroom instruction language.
RELI founder, Mr. Adeyemi Adedeji said the workshop is the first project under the organization’s Teacher Professional Development Programme which is aimed at training educators in the delivery of their subjects using indigenous, Nigerian languages.
According to Mr. Adedeji, it is evident that there is a long way to go to assist government in the implementation of the National Language Policy in Education but the far-reaching benefits of teaching learners in their natural language was a strong enough motivation to keep the fire burning.
“Having been held in Yorubaland, the workshop was conducted in Yoruba. It exposed teachers to strategies for teaching Mathematics using the Yoruba language, provided comprehensive lists of Mathematical terms in the Yoruba language and even demonstrated the writing of Math lesson plans in Yoruba.
“The workshop, the first in a series planned to hold continuously across the country and across indigenous Nigerian languages.”
The training had in attendance teachers from selected schools in Osogbo, Osun State.
