AAUA Don seeks implementation of national policy that recommends use of mother tongue for teaching

….Blames extinction of Yoruba language on people’s attitude

A Professor of Yoruba Language and Dialectology, Temitope Olumuyiwa, has blamed the gradual extinction of Yoruba language on government’s failure to implement the National Policy on Education as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.

He condemned the stigmatisation of people who Yoruba people who stigmatise the use of the language.

Prof. Olumuyiwa stated this while delivering the 47th Inaugural Lecture of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Tuesday, September 2, 2025.

Delivering the lecture titled, “Changing the Change: Yoruba Language and Dialectology in a Changing Society”, the Inaugural Lecturer described the situation as worrisome, warning that if urgent steps are not taken, non-Yoruba people might eventually become the ones teaching the language in schools.

He noted that, paradoxically, there is now a growing number of non-Yoruba, including foreigners, who are learning and embracing the Yoruba language and culture.

The inaugural lecturer identified several challenges confronting the Yoruba language, including the non-implementation of key aspects of the National Policy on Education, which recommends the use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction from early childhood through the six years of primary education.

The policy also advocates the establishment of universities whose medium of instruction should be Nigerian languages, and the inclusion of local languages in General Studies courses in higher institutions.

He stressed that the derogatory labelling of Yoruba as “vernacular” at various levels of education, conflicting theories on the language, and the negative attitudes of some teachers towards students of Yoruba have worsened the decline. These, he said, have contributed to the low enrolment of students in Yoruba-related courses in tertiary institutions.

“It is unfortunate that the younger generations are drifting away from the Yoruba language in preference for foreign tongues,” he said. “Parents abhor speaking their dialects and discourage their children from doing so, not realising that their culture is gradually going into extinction.”

Prof. Olumuyiwa further decried the waning interest of publishers in producing Yoruba books, attributing it to poor economic returns and declining reading culture. He also noted that the lack of interest in the language has led to abysmally low standards of orthography both in schools and in public spaces, as reflected in the wrong spellings of Yoruba words on billboards and in films.

According to him, “The reasons for this are not far-fetched. Some of those teaching the language are neither trained nor qualified. It is therefore unsurprising that they are unfamiliar with the symbols and conventions of Yoruba writing. This deficiency impacts the students’ mastery of spelling conventions, which in turn undermines their writing skills.”

He called on Yoruba parents to take responsibility for preserving the language by teaching and speaking it to their children. “Every Yoruba parent must cultivate the habit of teaching and speaking Yoruba to their children, while also developing a positive attitude towards the study of the language,” he urged.

Highlighting its international recognition, Prof. Olumuyiwa observed that Yoruba has become a global language, citing the establishment of the BBC Yoruba channel (online, print, and broadcast), and the requirement by London’s Metropolitan Police for recruits to speak a second language, including Yoruba. He added that Yoruba was recently among 34 languages into which the Arafat sermon was translated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In his remarks, Chairman of the occasion and Vice Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Prof. Olugbenga Ige, described inaugural lectures as platforms for academics to share the results of years of rigorous research and scholarship. He commended Prof. Olumuyiwa for his invaluable contributions to knowledge, pedagogy, and the University community.