THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Abraham Femi Akintunde (PhD), Felicia Onyekpauwanaka Akuta (PhD)

Abstract


The importance of education to humanity can never be over emphasized; it is against this backdrop that emphasis is being laid on the education of a child who is the future leader. Government at all levels and organizations all over the world have reiterated their commitment in education, especially that of children and youths, but in doing so effectively, attention must also be given to the medium of instruction, determining what language will be used to teach the students is one of the important factors to be considered in childhood education. Many researchers, educationists and other stakeholders have spent enormous time, energy and resources enumerating and emphasizing the importance of education to the child with little emphasis on the medium of instruction. This paper discusses the concept of mother tongue and significance of childhood education. The paper also highlights significance of mother tongue in childhood education. An important part of this paper also explores the use of mother tongue based education. Finally, the paper made some suggestions for the school administrators, class managers and government.

Keywords


medium of instruction, mother tongue, childhood education, first language, second language.

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