Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) has integrated the Yoruba Language into its General Nigeria Studies (GNS) curriculum as a means of fostering the language’s preservation and encouraging its use among students.
The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Bidemi Lafiaji-Okuneye, shared this information in an interview.
This comes on the heels of the enactment of a law by the Lagos State Government on August 8, 2018, to safeguard and promote Yoruba Language within its tertiary institutions.
The law mandates the inclusion of Yoruba Language in the GNS program of all tertiary institutions owned by the Lagos State government.
What he said
Lafiaji-Okuneye mentioned that the legacy college, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, which was later upgraded to LASUED, began incorporating Yoruba into the GNS curriculum in 2018 when the legislation was enacted.
- “It is a compulsory course for both 100 and 200 levels students, and they must pass it before they graduate.
- “Immediately we transmuted into a university, the senate of the institution approved the teaching of Yoruba Language at the GNS level in 2022, and we started teaching in February during the 2022/2023 session.
- “For now, our university is the only institution that is teaching Yoruba for one whole session in the state,” she said.
Lafiaji-Okuneye added that the 100-level students at the university had been taught, examined and graded on the course.
- “Lecturers teaching Yoruba Language created innovative ways to teach their students to capture their interest.
- “In the last admission process, we had to move some candidates interested in studying English Language to Yoruba Language because of the population.
- “The idea of making Yoruba Language compulsory is because we want our students to know more about the culture.
- “I urge parents and schools to adopt our language, which can help us to become game changers in preserving the language among children and students,” she said.