The Nigerian government has announced the cancellation of a controversial policy that mandated the use of indigenous languages for teaching in early education, reverting to English as the primary medium of instruction from pre-primary to university levels.
Education Minister Tunji Alausa stated that the programme, launched three years ago under former Education Minister Adamu Adamu, had failed to deliver the desired academic outcomes and is being scrapped with immediate effect. The original policy was based on the premise that children learn more effectively when taught in their mother tongue, a view supported by several UN studies on early childhood education.
Dr. Alausa cited poor academic results from regions that had implemented mother-tongue instruction, referencing data from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO), and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). “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.
The abrupt policy reversal has drawn mixed reactions. Some education specialists and parents welcomed the move, arguing that the initial implementation was problematic and contributed to declining standards. Dr. Aliyu Tilde, an education expert, noted Nigeria lacks adequately trained teachers for the country’s numerous indigenous languages and emphasized that major national exams are conducted in English.
Parents such as Hajara Musa expressed support, highlighting the importance of early English proficiency for global competitiveness. However, others, including social affairs analyst Habu Dauda, criticized the decision as premature, saying that three years was insufficient to assess the policy’s effectiveness and that greater investment in teacher training and learning materials was needed.
The debate underscores Nigeria’s ongoing challenge of balancing the promotion of its linguistic heritage with the practical demands of a national curriculum and the global dominance of English.
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