The Federal Government has officially scrapped the national policy requiring schools to use mother tongues as the primary medium of instruction.
Announced on Wednesday at the 2025 Language in Education International Conference organised by the British Council in Abuja, Education Minister Dr Tunji Alausa said English will now serve as the language of instruction from pre-primary through tertiary education.
The policy, approved in 2022, had aimed to promote indigenous languages and improve early learning outcomes by mandating instruction in mother tongues from Early Childhood Education to Primary Six. English was to remain the official language in later education and formal settings.
Speaking at the conference, Alausa cited evidence showing that the use of indigenous languages had adversely affected student performance in public examinations.
"We have seen a mass failure rate in WAEC, NECO, and JAMB in certain geo-political zones of the country, and those are the ones that adopted this mother tongue in an over-subscribed manner," he said.
He stressed that the decision was grounded in data, adding: "This is about evidence-based governance. English now stands as the medium of instruction from the pre-primary, primary, junior secondary, senior secondary and to the tertiary education level.
"Using the mother tongue language in Nigeria for the past 15 years has literally destroyed education in certain regions. We have to talk about evidence, not emotions."
He invited stakeholders with opposing views to provide verifiable data, while reiterating that the government remains open to evidence-based dialogue to strengthen the education sector.
Minister of State for Education Prof Suwaiba Ahmed pointed out government initiatives to address foundational learning challenges, including a new teacher training package focused on literacy and numeracy for pre-primary to Primary Three.
"Now we are designing a training package for the teachers that focuses on the learning of literacy and numeracy.
"This is specifically training teachers who teach across the foundation level from pre-primary to primary one to three.
"We are training them how best to teach literacy, how best to teach numeracy, and of course, the approach," she said.
Furthermore, the British Council’s Country Director, Donna McGowan, restated the organisation’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s education reforms, particularly in teacher development and language proficiency.
"We’re committed to working hand-in-hand with the ministry. We work across all areas of education in terms of supporting teacher professional development, school leadership, and language proficiency," McGowan said.
READ ALSO: Tinubu Bans Sale of Airport Lands, Approves Aviation Reforms
Comments
Post a Comment