Alright so last year I moved to a new city-state located in the Eastern part of Nigeria, the East is dominated by the Igbos, one of Nigeria's most prominent tribes and indigenous Languages widely spoken in this part, not long I began teaching in their schools and there I noticed that the IGBO Language is taught as a subject in the school, even tho it is widely spoken, they education system in the state incorporated the igbo language as a subject another funny thing is the igbo language is widely spoken it's like a primary language here, while the English language which is our official language is secondary...
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Samething in the school, students speak mostly igbo most of the time Instead of English, I felt okay about this, like how proud these guys are to upholding their mother tongue and not allow civilisation take over their tradition and certain cultures as other tribes, I loved the igbo assent and I also want to learn, but then something happened, another colleague of mine kicked against the motion, saying it's totally wrong, yes their language culture should be upheld but not taught as a subject even if it has to be, the students should be disciplined to speak English which is the official, widely spoken language all over the country not the igbo language which only in the east and some part of the Country, he made his argument firm insisting that these kids someday will leave the shores of the state and country and would find it very difficult to express themselves in English as some of his student had done when trying to ask him questions in class, because he wasn't igbo.
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so you see the barrier it has cause them, cause definitely one day they will find themselves else where and because they have been grounded in speaking mostly igbo, they will find it hard to express themselves in the official English language.....
like right now in the pre-school and primary classes the kids are already taught how to read and write in the igbo language, I was wowed, not only that during launch break or just interaction these kids use only igbo to communicate, it's samething else were within the state, you meet someone the first word that comes out of his mouth is igbo even if you look confused they wouldn't know if you're a stranger or not untill you say I don't speak or understand igbo.
my colleague in his argument siting other city-states he's been to, Said it's totally uncalled for, speaking language in school premises talkless of been taught as a subject, I was confused here because I am of the opinion that our language which is one of our cultural heritage should be upheld with high esteem, instead of the borrowed language from the white man, however we see Civilization taking over and the English language now is very necessary cause it's one official language that connects the entire world.
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so here I am caught up between two worlds, do you think it's right for the native language to be widely spoken and also taught in school replacing the English language as a primary language, preserving our mother tongue and upholding our most important aspect of our cultural heritage
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do you think it shouldn't be allowed to replace the English language seeing the English language is the world's largest and widely spoken language which is also a generally accepted official language and if it does it will be hard for the indegines to be able to express themselves in English...
let's banter in the comment section feel free to air your thoughts out loud.