Teacher Attitude and Student Performance in Indigenous Language Learning in Lagos

When the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1987 introduced the educational policy that required study of one of the three national languages, i.e., Hausa, Igbo and Yorùbá, at the West African School Certificate / General Certificate in Education [WASC / GCE] level, Nigerians and especially advocates for the survival of the indigenous languages embraced the idea with great enthusiasm. The primary aim was to make more Nigerians speak indigenous languages in addition to the language of their immediate environment. However, this purpose was frustrated when students opted for, and indeed registered for, their mother tongues rather than a non-familiar indigenous language. If the policy had been actually followed, the country would have generated citizens, who not only speak their own indigenous languages, but also citizens who have a practical knowledge of all of their country’s traditional languages. But this did not happen. In this paper, we look at the attitudes of private school teachers to the teaching of the indigenous languages vis-a-vis the competence and performance of students in these indigenous languages. The study is not only comparative but also correlative. The methodological instruments included a questionnaire, interview, a quasi-test and examination of junior / senior secondary school leaving certificates. Our findings revealed that students’ performances, as reflected in their results, do not demonstrate their competence in the indigenous languages in question. Similarly, we observed that both the teachers and the learners are instrumentally and not integratively motivate

On the divine in Husserl

The paper deals with the ways in which Edmund Husserl develops the question of God. Six ways to reach God are shown as present in Husserl’s writings, some of them seem to be very close to the traditional philosophical ways to go as far as God (the objective and the subjective ways) others are very original, in particular the way that starts from the analysis of the hyletic sphere of the human being, a sphere which is present in all the reality too. At last it is possible to notice Husserl’s interest in the mystical approach to God

Plausibility and Probability in Juridical Proof

This note discusses three issues that Allen and Pardo believe to be especially problematic for a probabilistic interpretation of standards of proof: (1) the subjectivity of probability assignments; (2) the conjunction paradox; and (3) the non-comparative nature of probabilistic standards. I offer a reading of probabilistic standards that avoids these criticisms