STORIES BY DAYO ADESULU

ACTING Director-General and Chief Executive of the Nigeria French Language Village, Dr Matthew Alawode has lamented the low patronage of the language school by Nigerian students.

He blamed some heads of departments who connive with some students to enroll them in neighbouring countries. He disclosed this at the meeting of Heads of Departments of French Language in  Nigerian Universities held at French Village, Badagry, Lagos.

He said that some of the heads boycott the French Village’s Language Immersion Programme (LIP) completely while some are in the habit of patronizing the French Village partially by taking majority of their students across the border, leaving the village with only a few students.

French language programme

This, he noted, will not augur well for the institution’s French language programme and by extension, the future of our students. He maintained that what students receive in institutions across the border cannot be compared with Nigeria’s NUC minimum academic standard.

He provided a statistical representation of university students’ enrollment from 2003 to date.

In 2003, 793 students were enrolled, in 2004 it was 745. However, in 2005, the enrollment rose to 853 and continued in 2006 to 1226. But in 2007, the number dropped to 975 and continued in that downward trend till 2014.

Thus in 2008, it recorded 671; 2009 – 580; 2010-620, 2011-566; 2012-490; 2013-329 and 2014-150 in the first semester. He charged the stakeholders to develop strategies for tackling the problem through joint participation and involvement of the village and the committee of heads of department of French Language.

It would be recalled that in 2010, the committee of heads of department in conjunction with the village, jointly reviewed the LIP curriculum for university undergraduates.

He said: “The aim of this review was to enable the village produce material for Nigerian university French departments, who will turn out graduates who are sufficiently equipped with essential skills in oral and written expression in French.

The village implemented to the letter the decisions reached at that meeting. It is a bit disturbing to realise that having jointly taken a decision and having jointly toiled so much to build the village up to its present status, some heads of department prefer to take their students to other institutions across the border.”

While admitting that the NFLV experienced some palpable challenges at some point in its recent history, the meeting, however, noted that the NFLV still possesses the necessary capacity to effectively carry out the Language Immersion Programme for Nigerian universities, and the NFLV academic calendar is flexible enough to accommodate all Nigerian universities irrespective of the arrival date of their students.

In spite of their laudable efforts, there is stagnation in the carrier progression of academic staff.

Having deliberated on the foregoing, the meeting re-affirmed that the NFLV is and remains the only NUC approved centre for the French Language Immersion Programme for Nigerian Universities.

The meeting therefore resolved that all Nigerian universities should send their students to NFLV for their Language Immersion Programme, the NFLV should step up and sustain the current capacity of service delivery, the excursion component of the Language Immersion Programme should be expanded,  the Federal Government of Nigeria should continue to support the NFLV to effectively discharge its statutory obligation to Nigerian universities.