Bayero University translates physics, chemistry and maths textbooks into Hausa

Opeyemi Adelere
Bayero University has concluded the translation of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics textbooks into Hausa. The translation team was led by Professor Liyu Mu’azu, as revealed by a twitter user, Muhd El-Bonga Ibrahim.
The issue of mother tongue education has been fiercely but sporadically debated in many African countries that were colonized. Rather than most African countries embracing multilingual education, they operate solely through a foreign language – English, French or Portuguese.
In Nigeria, English is the lingual franca and of course, the language of instruction throughout school system; from primary through tertiary education. The efficiency of learning and cognitive development is said to have been hampered based on this. Several researches have established the fact that people who are thought in their mother’s tongue perform better than second language learners.
In 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), people who used the spoken language of the test in the home scored 62 points higher, on the average, than those who seldom spoke the language of the test. Taking this illustration to Nigeria context, especially the northern part of the country, where the mother tongue, Hausa is spoken on a wide range, language becomes a strong success factor.
To many people it is a welcome idea, however, there are fears that this development may pose some form of restrictions for Northerners to study outside their region, as ability to speak more than one language opens doors career wise, in that it enables one to converse in a world language and other local languages.
It has also been noted that getting grips on translating some terminologies without losing the meaning may be difficult. For instance, how best could covalence, electromagnetism, electron affinity and even subject like further mathematics been written in Hausa language?
Some Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea do not speak English and yet have recorded scientific and technological breakthrough globally. It is said that if it could work for these countries, then, the development is a good one and worth trying out in the region.