Adesola Olusade, permanent secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), says the FCT is ready to implement President Muhammadu Buhari’s new national language policy.

Mr Olusade announced an end-of-year and award ceremony organised by the FCT Education Resource Centre (ERC) on Tuesday in Abuja.

“The Education Resource Centre will also pilot the implementation of this policy, and for us, it is a welcome development, and we will implement it to the best of our ability,” he said.

The recently approved national policy makes the mother tongue a compulsory medium of instruction from primary one to primary six.

He said once the modalities were set out, the FCT would kick-start the programme to ensure that the indigenous languages of the people would not be extinct.

“We want to see our young ones speak our dialects, and whatever it means for us to support that effort, we will give in to it,” added Mr Olusade.

The permanent secretary added that the FCTA, in its efforts to promote quality education and a conducive learning environment, would be renovating 100 schools in 100 days.

“However, we might be constrained by limited resources, but the first phase of the programme will certainly take off before the end of the year,” noted the FCTA permanent secretary. “We believe a conducive atmosphere will promote learning, and the FCT is committed to improving the learning environment in the schools.”

Also speaking, Neemat Abdulrahim, director of the ERC, said the award ceremony was organised to appreciate the dedication and commitment to hard work by the centre’s staff and partners.

 (NAN)