Journalist makes case for indigenous language

To ensure adequate protection of indigenous languages and prevent them from going into extinction, government has been advised to make changes in the school curriculum so that students will be taught in the local languages from primary one to primary three.In a paper presented at the public lecture marking the 2011 Ipetu-Ijesha Day Celebration, at Ipetu-Ijesha, Oriade Local Government, Osun State at the weekend by a media practitioner, Mr. Akinlolu Abayomi, he said the measure would not only ensure easy understanding of what they were taught but would also make them have proper grip of the local languages."To prevent our local languages from going into extinction, parents should make indigenous languages form of communication at home while children should also to be given necessary exposure to the richness of our socio-cultural heritages right from the cradle", he said adding that parents should encourage children to wear native and traditional attires.The media practitioner, who said that parents should monitor their children and note the profiles details of their peers, added that they should pay impromptu visits to their schools and create time for periodic checking of their bags."Parents should not over-pamper children or make them spoilt rat. If a teenager is given a handset such parent should at intervals check the contacts and the messages. If such a student is on face book or other social networks, parents should endeavour to make him/her his/her friend on the social network and closely monitor the list of friends", he said.He also said that teachers should also play the role of ensuring strict discipline for students during school hours, adding that students caught with phone in class should be disciplined while schools that provide internet facilities should also put in place machinery to monitor the students while on the internet.Abayomi, in his paper titled, 'The Effects of Communication in the Present World: The Good, the Bad, and the Solution', said that the nation's legislative houses should work towards passing a bill that would ban the use of handsets by students in primary and secondary schools.He also said that government at various levels should sustain the tempo in the drive to return schools to the original owners the missionaries who would help in preaching morals to the students while the 36 states in the country should as a matter of urgency create the Ministry of Youth Affairs.
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