The University of Jos chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has faulted the reversal of the mother-tongue policy in favour of the English language by the federal government.

Jurbe Mwolwus, the chairperson of the union at the university, said this during a news conference on Monday in Jos.

Mr Mwolwus insisted that the use of the English language for early childhood education was retrogressive, adding that the move was a great loss of past gains rooted in research.

“ASUU in the University of Jos opposes the reversal and insists that using local languages for instruction is a standard and best practice in technologically advanced nations like China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, among others.

“Children before the age of eight have been found to be able to master six or more languages without hampering their cognitive development,” he said.

The chairperson called on the federal government to reconsider its decision in order to ensure proper early childhood development in Nigeria.

Mr Mwolwus also faulted the government’s plan to establish a campus of Coventry University in Nigeria under the Transnational Education framework (TNE).

“ASUU sees TNE as another platform to further undermine and underdevelop the country’s education for the personal benefit of a few Nigerians and their foreign collaborators.

“ASUU is calling on the government to make our universities globally competitive to attract foreign students and scholars, or retain tested local brains, instead of embracing the recolonisation of our education,” Mr Mwolwus said.

The chairperson also faulted the move by the Federal Ministry of Education to scrap some courses in the university system.

He described the claim by the ministry that some courses, particularly in the social sciences and humanities, were “irrelevant” and compounding unemployment issues in Nigeria as “unfortunate”.

“We make bold to say that every course in the university has its utilitarian values, both in personal and societal spheres.

“After all, skills, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication and digital literacy are laid by the so-called irrelevant courses like philosophy, religious studies, linguistics and fine arts, among others.

“By the way, is it only graduates of the social sciences and humanities that are unemployed in Nigeria? So, ASUU rejects any attempt to scrap academic programmes in Nigerian universities. We call on the government to rather create an enabling environment for industries to grow and create more employment opportunities,” he said.

Mr Mwolwus also advised the federal government to desist from irregular appointments, misappropriation of funds and disregard for due process in universities.

(NAN)