ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NIGERIA CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION HAUSA LANGUAGE CURRICULUM IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

Hausa language is one of the best known and widely spoken languages in West Africa. It is classified as a member of the Chadic of the Afro-asiatic family of languages. More recently, the relationship of Hausa to Cushitic, Berber and Semitic (That is Arabic and Hebrew) languages was widely recognized, Greenberg, Kraft & Kirkgreen, Welmars & Newman in Yahaya, (2012). Hausa is largely and predominantly spoken in Nigeria and the Niger republic. Sizeable Hausa speaking communities are also found in Ghana, Cameroun, Chad, Benin republic, Burkina Faso, Togo, Sudan and many of the major cities in west, north and equatorial Africa. It is estimated that eighty to one hundred million people can claim Hausa as a first language with some one hundred million nonnative speakers demonstrating varying degrees of competence in the language, Graham (1996)in Genet (2010). In fact Hausa language is the eleventh most spoken languages in the world

Hausa language is both the vehicle of knowledge, world view and the shortest route to a child‘s conception and comprehension of concepts (NCCE, 2012:65). The policy on language education in Nigeria dates back to the colonial era when the Phelps – Stokes Commission of 1922 emphasized the importance of indigenous languages in the school system. The British Advisory Committee on Native Education in tropical African recommended in 1927, that the native languages should serve as medium of instruction in the lower years of primary education. The Richard’s constitution of 1947 reinstated English as the official language in Nigeria while Hausa was recommended as an additional legislative language in northern Nigeria. In addition, the 1954 constitution recognized domestic and

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regional languages. In its article 114 (1), it recommended the use of English as a national official language and as the regional official language in the south, with Hausa as the regional language of the North with the provision that when conflicts in interpretation occurred, documentation done in English language is regarded as validFafunwa, (2004:34) in Adnot & Wyckoff (2015).

ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NIGERIA CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION HAUSA LANGUAGE CURRICULUM IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA