The Nigerian Union of Teachers has described the proposed N500,000 fine stipulated in the bill before the Lagos State House of Assembly on the compulsory teaching and learning of the Yoruba language in schools across the state as outrageous.
The bill also recommends the closure of any school in the state that flouts the proposed law, when passed by the Assembly.
The bill, which is for a law to preserve and promote the use of Yoruba language and for connected purposes, is currently before the house. It also seeks to make Yoruba language a core subject in schools in the state.
Reacting, the NUT National President, Mr. Micheal Olukoya, told our correspondent that although he supported the move by the government to uphold the state’s cultural heritage by proposing the Yoruba language bill, the N500,000 fine would be too high for any defaulting school to pay, especially given the current economic situation in the country.
“I understand that it is part of our cultural heritage to speak our language and we must all key into the policy, but the only area I have reservations is the fine. It is too high and I feel the state government should reduce it by half, looking at the financial situation of the economy now,” Olukoya said.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Mr. Lanre Ogunyemi, had said that the bill, if passed into law, would enhance the preservation of the Yoruba language.
According to him, the bill also recommends the translation of all the laws in the state into Yoruba language to enable them to get to their targets.
The Assembly had earlier made moves to make the teaching and learning of Yoruba Language compulsory in both public and private schools in the state.
The House said such a step had become imperative to meet its target of preserving and preventing the indigenous language of the South West from going into extinction.
The bill further states that all state-owned tertiary institutions should incorporate the use of Yoruba language in the General Studies curriculum.
It reads in part, “The use of Yoruba Language shall be an acceptable means of communication between individuals, establishment, corporate entities and government in the state, if so desired by the concerned.
“Any school that fails to comply with the provisions of Section 2 of the law commits an offence and is liable on first violation to issuance of warning and on subsequent violation, be closed down and also pay a fine of N500, 000.”
Ogunyemi also disclosed that the committee might amend a provision in the bill, which recommends that it should take effect after two years of its passage.
According to him, most of the lawmakers preferred the bill to become effective immediately after being signed into law by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
The lawmaker added that the Assembly was passionate about Yoruba, adding that this necessitated its adoption of the language for conducting debate during its plenary session every Thursday.
He said, “The National Policy on Education provides that the language of an environment should be spoken in schools, which is why Yoruba Language is being adopted for Lagos schools.
“After the passage of the bill into law, it would become compelling for schools to teach Yoruba language. We want to preserve the language for generations yet unborn.”
On compliance by private schools after passage, the lawmaker said that school owners were part of the bill and that they were at meetings the committee held across education districts in the state.
He added that private school owners would have no choice than to key into the project as they had been properly mobilised, saying that the state Ministry of Education would ensure compliance.
On the translation of the laws into Yoruba Language, Ogunyemi said that this was to ensure that those literate only in Yoruba language were carried along in the scheme of things in the state.
