The Nigerian government has officially discontinued its mother tongue education policy, announcing that English will now serve as the primary language of instruction for children at the foundational levels.
Tunji Alausa, the Minister of Education, spoke at the 2025 Language in Education International Conference, organised by the British Council in Abuja on Wednesday.
Recall in 2022, the federal government approved a national language policy (NLP).
The policy provided that from early child care education to primary six, the language of instruction will be in the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community.
The policy aimed to promote indigenous languages, recognise their equal status, and improve early childhood learning outcomes.
English was to remain the official language used in later education and formal settings.
However, Alausa speaking at the conference, said English is now the language of instruction in Nigerian schools from primary to tertiary levels.
Read also: Tinubu urges media to balance criticism with patriotism
The minister emphasised that Nigerian children had been performing abysmally in public examinations as a result of being taught in their mother tongue.
Alausa explained that the decision to cancel the policy followed extensive data analysis and evidence showing that the use of mother tongue as the main medium of instruction had negatively affected learning outcomes in several parts of the country.
“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 oversubscribed manner.
“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,” the minister said.
In addition, he said, “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.”
Alausa noted that data gathered from schools across the country revealed that students taught primarily in indigenous languages recorded higher failure rates in national examinations and struggled with Basic English comprehension.
“The national policy on language has been cancelled. English now stands as the medium of instruction across all levels of education,” he said.
He admonished education stakeholders with differing views to present verifiable data to support their positions, adding that the government remained open to evidence-based dialogue that would strengthen the education sector.
Furthermore, Alausa applauded the British Council for its partnership with Nigeria in advancing education reforms and promoting inclusive language and learning policies.
Suwaiba Ahmed, the minister of state for education, who spoke on other areas of focus by the government to address the teaching and learning crisis at the foundational level of education, said a new training package had been designed for teachers that would help literacy and numeracy learning.
”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,” Ahmed said.
