Language, education, evaluation; instruments for national development — Don

A Professor in the Institute of Education, University of Ibadan, Professor Joseph Abiodun Adegbile, has identified language, education and evaluation as instruments for national development in Nigeria.

He stated this when he delivered his valedictory lecture in Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan, on 10 April, 2025. The Professor of Language Education and Educational Evaluation exited the University services after 43 years of meritorious service both at the secondary school level and the University level.

Prof Adegbile spoke extensively on the topic ‘Language, Education and Evaluation (LEE): Instruments for National Development’, and said that the acquisition of language skills, understanding of the goals and purposes of education and evaluation were powerful tools for a nation’s development.

He described national development as the capacity of a nation to raise the standard of living of its citizens, and said it could be achieved by providing individuals with basic livelihood requirements and supplying them with employment.

“Generally speaking, it includes full growth and expansion of a nation’s industries, agriculture, education, social, religious and cultural institutions. In other words, national development implies development of a nation as a whole. It can best be defined as the all-round and balanced development of different aspects and facets of the nation”, he stated.

According to Prof Adegbile, one of the major implications of the multiplicity of languages in Nigeria is that there is no effective communication among the different ethnic groups which results in tribalism, nepotism, hatred and other ill-vices in the Nigerian society.

He said, the English language is being used as a means of communication to reduce the rate at which these might disintegrate the country, and even despite this unique role of the English language, the country still has a very long way to go.

“Language is one of the most important parts of any culture. It is the way by which people communicate with one another, build relationships and create a sense of community.

“Language and culture are intertwined. A particular language usually points out to a specific group of people. When one interacts with another language, it means that one is also interacting with the culture that speaks the language. It is not possible to understand a culture without accessing its language directly.

“When a new language is being learned, it does not only involve learning its alphabet, the word arrangement and the rules of grammar but also involves learning about the specific society’s customs and behaviour. When learning or teaching a language, it is important that the culture to which the language belongs is highly respected.

“Apart from the three major indigenous languages in Nigeria, the English language is our lingua franca because it is our official language of communication. It is a means of communication in education, politics. religion, commerce, science and technology. And when we say the English language is the language of education, it means it is used as a means of communication in our schools and colleges.

“The foregoing simply explains why English language is made compulsory at the secondary school level and one of the pre-requisites for admission into all tertiary institutions in Nigeria,” he stated.

Furthermore, the Don stated that, just like language, education is also an instrument for national development, and described it as the means by which an individual born into a human society, learns the ways of life, which include knowledge, skills and values, through the older members, consciously and unconsciously, so that he can function successfully as an adult member of the society.

According to him, the foregoing implies that, a society needs to produce well-brought up and sufficiently educated youths before a sound national development can take place. Education cannot be grasped through just one of the several features such as schooling, morals, oracy, literacy, skills, numeracy, indoctrination, knowledge, instruction and cultivation.

Prof Adegbile said, “We can affirm that it transcends the school. In other words, education, which is defined in terms of schooling, is somewhat shallow. Education is more than schooling, the distinguishing feature of education is its emphasis on development—development of the human person, and the emphasis has always been on total or overall development of the human person, and this explains why it is said that education takes care of the 3Hs of the human person—the Head, the Hands and the Heart.

“There is also a tendency to equate education with mere schooling or speaking or writing good English. This can also result in equating learning with book knowledge, which is otherwise called ‘the uncritical memorization of the content of a book.

“Education is one of the foremost human rights to be given priority and provided for all human beings. It is pertinent to mention that the sole purpose of education is to train an individual to meet the needs of the society and find an enhancing way to boost up the national development in the best possible ways.

“There is no doubt in saying the quality of a nation’s education determines the level of its national development. An educational development helps people figure out the skills that they direly need to get rid of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and other so- called social problems. Therefore, schools at various levels are expected to educate upcoming future leaders and develop the multidimensional technical capacities needed for economic growth and development.

“It is necessary to point out that, a good and sufficiently funded education system develops in individual those values which make for good citizenship, such as honesty, selflessness, tolerance and dedication. Education for All does not imply ‘basic education for children of basic school-going age’.

“The implication of the Education for All is that education in all aspects of possible ramifications to everybody in all segments of the population.”

He also pointed out that Genuine Education for All (GEFA) is quite all embracing because it is more capable of enhancing national development than mere school education.

According to him, for a genuine national development, there should be a genuine education for all citizens in the country.

The last instrument for national development which the Don discussed was evaluation. He based his discussion on Evaluation and National Development on an all embracing definition of evaluation offered by Alkin (1970) which seems to be the most acceptable and comprehensive definition.

The Don added, Alkin defines evaluation as” the process of ascertaining the decisions to be made, selecting related information, and collecting and analyzing information in order to report summary data, useful to decision makers in selecting among alternatives.

“The definition considers almost everything about evaluation. It describes the whole process about evaluation. The point that is being stressed is that, for a worthwhile national development to take place, our students at various levels of formal education should be exposed the curriculum having a standard evaluation scheme.

“Each of our system can be evaluated in order to ascertain what is actually wrong. And when the role of evaluation in national development is being discussed, all our systems are involved. In educational evaluation, there are institutions and professional activities. The educational institutions require evaluation data that can be used to convince the stakeholders the extent to which the institutions are worthwhile or otherwise.

“They also provide a measure of performance, particularly with respect to learners’ performance in the teaching -learning activities. The foregoing activity is part of what can develop a nation because, to a very large extent, the level of development of a nation is determined by the quality of education received by her citizens.

“There are different ways in which evaluation can contribute to the development of a nation. These include the following: When evaluation clarifies outcomes, it helps us better understand and document the desired outcomes.

“Evaluation pinpoints needed leadership competencies and direct attention to critical issues.
Evaluation supports ongoing learning. It can be used to fine-tune a proposed or existing national development intervention.”

It was also pointed out at the lecture that the main critical elements of evaluation in language, education and national development are measurement, assessment and evaluation, they are related, but not synonymous.

“So, evaluation makes use of information based on the evidence generated through measurement and assessment in order to make judgement of the value of a particular programme,” he said.

He concluded by stressing that a nation cannot be strong or well developed and its democracy can never thrive if its citizens are illiterate because literacy is one of the indicators of national development.

The technological and scientific development level of a nation is determined by the level of use of language. Language has always been known to be central to a nation’s development because it helps man to communicate, interact and develop.

He, therefore, recommended that; “Government at all levels should sponsor language -based research in the area of education and evaluation. If the Federal Government realises the importance or the role of language as a means of promoting unity, social interaction and ultimately, national development, efforts should be put in place to prevent our indigenous languages from being in a moribund state.

“Since GEFA is believed to be more suited to enhancing sustainable national development than mere school education, it should therefore be pursued vigorously to take care of all the weaknesses of ‘Education is for schooling” definition.

“Since all teachers are not trained evaluators, and not all trained evaluators are teachers, those in the education industry at all levels should be trained as evaluators so that teaching-learning activities can be effective.”