The Status, Prospects and Challenges of Using Nigerian Pidgin as Medium of Instruction in Nigerian Schools for Equalisation of Educational Opportunities

Abstract

Nigerian Pidgin is a hybrid language that emerges as a result of prolonged contact between different groups of people. It is an English-based pidgin spoken to facilitate communication among Nigerians who have no common or unifying language. Nigerian Pidgin is a simplified language which is used within certain context of interaction and it is meant to serve a specific communication purpose like trade, politics. Pidgin language has no native speakers, it has restricted vocabularies, it is usually syntactically simple and it has a limited range of functions like trade, marriage negotiation, land disputes etc. The paper proposed that Nigerian Pidgin can effectively be used in schools, especially to solve linguistic problems and to equalize the educational opportunities since National Policy on Education (2013) encouraged the use of the language of the immediate environment. Observation shows that in Rivers and Bayelsa States, ‘teachers resort to the use of Nigerian Pidgin for explanatory purposes, especially in the early stages of pre-primary education, since there is no other common language among the pupils. To deprive them of the use of Nigerian pidgin at this early stage means making way for inequality of educational opportunities for people in rural areas. There is need to incorporate Nigerian pidgin into language of instruction at the pre-primary level of education for equalization of educational opportunities. Recommending Nigerian Pidgin as a medium of instruction may enhance national unity among the diverse ethnic groups and equal opportunities of education. It was suggested that Nigerian Pidgin should be offered as a subject in secondary schools and as a course of study in tertiary institutions. Teaching National Policy on Education as a subject will enable Nigerians to draw a line between pidgin and Standard Nigerian English.