Language Education In Primary Schools in Nigeria: Contemporary Issues And New Direction

Abstract

The Federal Government of Nigeria in the National Policy on Education (2004), has spelt out the aims of Primary Education. Being the foundation for formal schooling, this paper posits that the effective tool for the appropriate achievement of quality education at this level is Language. The paper indentifies some contemporary issues like the multi-lingual problem, poor policy implementation, poor teacher quality and poor access to curriculum materials, as challenges. It suggests a search for new direction towards the development of the orthographies of indigenous languages, provision of regular and effective professional capacity development opportunities for classroom teachers and greater and sustained attention to the implementation of the core language education policy.