Shina Abubakar, Osogbo

In a bid to enhance teaching and learning in early education, a non-profit organisation, Regen Education and Leadership Initiative, RELI, has stressed the need for the federal government to enforce the deployment of the mother tongue as an instructional language in early education years.

The team lead, Mr Adeyemi Adedeji said the agenda, in line with the Federal Government National Language Policy in Education, is working to ensure the deployment of the mother tongue in basic education.

Speaking during a visit to the head office of the National Orientation Agency in Osun State to explore an area of partnership on Thursday, Adedeji said the RELI’s area of operation covers SDG Goal 4, which is inclusive, high-quality education for all.

“We are working to assist the government to address the challenges of training teachers in the use of the Mother Tongue for instruction in their various subject areas, development of instructional materials in the mother tongue and advocacy to schools and parents to embrace the National Language Policy in Education, the area in which the NGO needed the partnership with the National Orientation Agency”, he said.

Responding, Dr. Bola Morgan, Director, NOA, Osun State, commended the RELI team for their passion, foresight and dexterity in articulating the NGO’s ideals, adding that it was rare to see young people driven by the need to preserve the nation’s native languages and culture.

Dr Morgan lauded the group’s ambition to support the government’s effort to overcome the identified challenges in the path of Mother Tongue in Education in Nigeria.

She informed the RELI team that one of the initiatives of the Director General, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu was to start a programme of Volunteer Community Brigadiers who would be equipped to conduct advocacy on national values to communities using the mother tongue.