The Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) has incorporated Yoruba Language into its General Nigeria Studies (GNS) to promote and preserve the language among students.
The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Bidemi Lafiaji-Okuneye, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.
NAN reports that Lagos State Government had on Aug. 8, 2018, signed into law, a bill to preserve and promote Yoruba Language in its tertiary institutions.
The law states that Yoruba Language shall be incorporated into the GNS programme of all Lagos State-owned tertiary institutions.
Lafiaji-Okuneye said that the state’s legacy college, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, which was upgraded to LASUED, started teaching Yoruba in GNS in 2018 when the bill was signed into law.
“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 of the university had been taught, examined and graded on the course.
“Lecturers teaching Yoruba Language created innovative ways to teach their students in order 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.
