… Minister Blames Poor Exam Performance On Local Language Teaching
The Federal Government has scrapped the National Language Policy mandating the use of indigenous languages as the medium of instruction in Nigerian schools, declaring English as the sole language of teaching from the pre-primary to tertiary level.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Morufu-Tunji Alausa, announced the decision on Wednesday at the 2025 Language in Education International Conference organised by the British Council in Abuja.
The now-suspended policy, introduced in 2022, directed that teaching from Early Child Care Education to Primary Six be conducted in the mother tongue or the language of the immediate environment. It was designed to promote indigenous languages and improve pupils’ comprehension in their formative years.
But Alausa said the government’s review and data analysis showed that the mother-tongue policy had done more harm than good. According to him, evidence revealed that students taught primarily in local languages recorded higher failure rates in national examinations and performed poorly in English comprehension tests.
“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,” Alausa stated.
“This is about evidence-based governance. English now stands as the medium of instruction from pre-primary, primary, junior secondary, senior secondary, and up to the tertiary level.”
The minister described the decision as necessary to halt what he called “the destruction of education standards” in regions that adopted the indigenous language model over the past 15 years.
“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 added.
Alausa urged advocates of the indigenous language policy to present verifiable data if they believed otherwise, stressing that the government’s position was based on extensive empirical findings.
“The national policy on language has been cancelled. English now stands as the medium of instruction across all levels of education,” he declared.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmed, also revealed that the government had introduced a new teacher training package to strengthen literacy and numeracy among pupils at the foundation level.
“We are designing a training package for teachers that focuses on the learning of literacy and numeracy — specifically for those teaching from pre-primary to primary three,” she explained.
On her part, the Country Director of the British Council, Donna McGowan, commended the Nigerian government for its readiness to adopt evidence-based educational reforms, pledging continued collaboration with the ministry.
“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.
The cancellation of the mother-tongue policy is expected to reignite debate among education stakeholders, many of whom have long argued that early learning in a child’s native language enhances comprehension and cultural identity.
However, Alausa maintained that the government’s decision was driven by “data, not sentiment,” and aimed at reversing Nigeria’s persistent decline in public examination performance.
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