Lagos state government to introduce Chinese language in public schools

Lagos State Governor,  Mr Babatunde Fashola, said on Sunday that the plan by the state government to introduce Mandarin in public schools was not  to discourage the teaching of indigenous languages.

The governor said during the commemoration of 2,000 days of his administration in Ikeja that the introduction of Mandarin in schools was to give  pupils functional education in consonance with current realities.

He said the emergence of China as a major economic power should compel any serious government to begin to plan for the future.

Fashola, however, said that  no child would be compelled to take the language in school.

The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, recently announced plans by the government to introduce Chinese language in all public schools.

``Our plan to introduce Chinese in schools is not to discourage or stop the teaching of indigenous languages in schools.

``We will continue to teach Yoruba and other languages but we are saying that giving our pupils the opportunity to learn Chinese will be an advantage in a changing world.

``Whether we admit it or not the Chinese are taking over the global economy and we are only preparing our pupils for the opportunities that the use of Chinese language as the possible language of the future  might provide,`` Fashola said.

He said the various interventions  by the state government in the education sector had made positive impacts on the standard of education in the state.

The governor said the state was now ranked among the  states with the best public education in country, while the pass rate in WAEC had  moved from less than 20 per cent in 2011 to over 38.28 per cent in 2012.

Source:NAN