A pro-Igbo group, Odinala Cultural Heritage Foundation (OCHIE Igbo), says teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) using the mother tongue will guarantee easy understanding and ensure Nigeria progresses as it should in the areas of science and technology.
The Executive Director, of OCHIE Igbo STEM school, Mr Okoro Chinedum, stated this on Thursday in Awka, during a media chat to announce the inauguration of the committees for the development of the curriculum for STEM in Igbo language.
The OCHIE Igbo STEM initiative is in collaboration with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka.
The initiative is to make STEM real and practical for students and not abstract, by bridging the gap in the present curriculum that is being run in schools across the country.
“We are being intentional about internalizing the culture, values, and tradition of a people, and marrying the same with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is the secret of the white man.
“The OCHIE Igbo STEM Project was conceived in 2021, as a benign search to harness the gains associated with teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in schools using the mother tongue.
“We will on Friday, inaugurate the functional committees that will develop the framework and curriculum for the teaching and learning of STEM in Igbo language.
“The problem is that Africans think in the English language when they speak sciences and this has inhibited effective understanding and internalization of knowledge.
“The project is to indigenize the ingenuity of our people so that they can begin to think everything they are being taught in their mother tongue so that they can contribute to knowledge.
“It is a campaign we are beginning at this level but we know that it is something that can be upscaled to begin to solve the problem of the Igbos, Nigeria, and Africa,” he said.
On his part, Prof. Charles Esimone, the Vice-Chancellor, of NAU, said teaching STEM in indigenous languages would help preserve the culture and identity of the nation.
He said; “No nation can advance scientifically except when the mode of instruction and evaluation is done in their indigenous language.
“You see the development in China, Europe, and other advanced countries. Check well, that the mode of instruction is in their indigenous language.
“So, Igbo language is not an exception. It is an old, ancient, and very powerful language. If we follow what other advanced countries have done, we are going to make advancement as a nation.”
Esimone said the university was collaborating on the OCHIE Igbo STEM project because it has the best human resources and machinery to run and actualize the project.
He said after the resource persons developed the curriculum and framework, it would kick off in NAU and later be domesticated in other tertiary Institutions, and secondary and primary schools in other states.
On his part, the acting National Secretary of OCHIE Igbo, Okikadigbo Ifeanyi Oguno said the group wants to break the barrier that has kept the ingenuity of the Igbos and other indigenous tribes.
According to him, the campaign is to begin the unshackling of the minds of the indigenous people to begin to accept the capacity of the people, irrespective of their status, education-wise.
