31st
August,
2020
PRESS RELEASE:
MURIC LAUDS LASG FOR BOOSTING ARABIC
EDUCATION
An Islamic
human rights organization, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has commended the
state government for boosting the teaching of Arabic Language in the state.
However, the group urged LASG to complement the effort with the recruitment of
more Arabic teachers in order to make it pragmatic and effective. The
commendation was given by the Director of the organization, Professor Ishaq
Akintola, in a press statement circulated among journalists on Monday, 31st
August, 2020.
MURIC’s
statement came on the heels of a workshop organised by the Ministry of
Education for Arabic Teachers across the six education districts of the State. Speaking
at the opening ceremony of the workshop, the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Abosede
Adelaja said the Lagos State Government (LASG) has rekindled the interest of
public school students towards learning Arabic language with the introduction
of teachers to new skills and methodology that will simplify the process and
make it more interesting.
The
workshop was held at the Multilingual International Resource Centre, Maryland,
Lagos, on Thursday, 27th August, 2020, under the theme ‘Teaching and
Learning of Arabic Language in Lagos State Schools: Status, Challenges and the
Way Forward’.
MURIC posited, “The workshop
organized last Thursday 27th August, 2020, for teachers of Arabic by
the Lagos State Ministry of Education is quite laudable. It will go a long way
in boosting the teaching of Arabic Language in Lagos public schools. The theme
was quite apt and it depicts LASG’s readiness to improve the teaching and
learning of languages in the state.
“However,
we appeal to the Ministry to complement this move by recruiting more teachers
for the subject in order to make the workshop pragmatic, effective and
rewarding. There is a huge shortfall in the number of Arabic teachers vis a
vis the number of public schools in the state. This has resulted in the
nonavalability of Arabic teachers in many schools.
“We urge
the state government to investigate the claim being made by teachers of the
subject that presently 98.5% of public schools in Lagos do not have teachers of
Arabic Language and that the few who were originally employed in primary and
secondary schools are teaching Islamic studies. This trend may defeat the very purpose
of the workshop and the state government’s good intention particularly if LASG
wishes to remove the language barrier in the path of the state government as it
strives towards making the state a 21st century economy.”
Professor
Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights
Concern (MURIC)
No comments:
Post a Comment