By Niyi Okiri

Some experts who are beneficiaries of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) sponsored National Research Fund (NRF) have said using Indigenous languages and animations as tools for teaching make learning by pupils easier and better.
They gave the verdict yesterday at LASUED, Ijanikin, Lagos during the 2023 Grant Dissemination Programme.
Their research efforts were on how teaching in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba proverbs could make pupils learn better and understand faster.
In his address, Prof Oladayo Akanmu gave insight into how indigenous languages have helped China and India in their developmental strides.
In her own report, Prof. Joy Odewunmi, disclosed that it was initially difficult to carry pupils along during the interactive research “but we were able to gain their attention after consultations with teachers and other stakeholders.
“Once the proverbs and illustrations were translated into English, it became easier for the pupils to learn, albeit with enthusiasm. In pictures, you discover that you learn better.”
In her own report during the occasion, titled, ‘Teaching Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba: Using Colouring Books and Interactive Animations for Junior Primary Schools’, Dr. Ngozi Dom-Anyanwu advised that “we should go back to our roots.
“Let us come home. Let us develop our own languages for greater identity and progressive development.
“Why can’t we do it ourselves, when people and institutions are promoting our languages for us abroad. Let us be proud of our languages. Our languages are beautiful; they are a blessing.”
Dr. Dom-Anyanwu said children have capacity to retain languages and illustrations. “Parents should speak and teach their children in their mother-tongues.”
The research team called on governments and stakeholders in education to encourage and assist the initiative, “so that we can compete with what obtains in developed climes.”