It's official: Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has confirmed that Mandarin will be taught in Lagos State schools. He said this during the commemoration of 2, 000 days of his administration.
According to the Gidi helmsman, the introductiion 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, however he did say that no child would be compelled to take the language in school.
It would be recalled that the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoya, recently announced plans by the government to introduce Chinese language in all public schools, something we all thought was a joke, but the governor's recent remarks shows that they're not in the business of makng jokes.
Hear him, "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 langiuage as the possible language of the future might provide." He did not specify what these 'opportunities' might be. As to his belief that Mandarin could be the possible language of the future just because the Chinese economy has been on the upswing, seems to be something of a knee-jerk reaction. . . something Nigerians are wont to do.
As to how Mandarin will impact the short to medium term education and economic goals of the state remains to be seen. We can at least breathe a sigh of relief to know that Yoruba and other indigenous languages will continue to be taught.
Nigerian students speaking Chinese. . . now that I'll like to see.
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