The federal government has repealed the national policy requiring indigenous languages to be used as a medium of instruction in public schools.
Tunji Alausa, the minister of education, spoke at the British Council’s 2025 Language in Education International Conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
In 2022, the federal government adopted a National Language Policy (NLP).
The policy stated that from early childhood education to primary six, instruction would be in the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community.
The strategy sought to promote indigenous languages, acknowledge their equality, and improve early childhood learning outcomes.
English was to remain the official language i
n secondary education and formal contexts.
Speaking during the conference, Alausa stated that English is currently the language of instruction in Nigerian schools, from primary to higher.
He said that Nigerian pupils had performed poorly in public exams as a result of being taught in their mother tongue.
The minister stated that the decision to cancel the strategy was based on comprehensive data analysis and evidence demonstrating that using mother tongue as the primary medium of instruction had a negative impact on learning outcomes in certain areas 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 over-subscribed manner,” Alausa said.
“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.”
Alausa said 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 declared.
The minister invited parties with opposing viewpoints to produce verifiable facts to back up their claims, noting that the government remained open to evidence-based dialogue that would develop the education sector.
He praised the British Council for working with Nigeria to advance education reforms and promote inclusive language and learning policies.
Suwaiba Ahmed, the minister of state for education, discussed other areas of priority for the government in addressing the teaching and learning crisis at the fundamental level of education.
Ahmad stated that a new teacher training package has been developed to improve literacy and numeracy learning.
”Now we are designing a training package for the teachers that focuses on the learning of literacy and numeracy,” she said.
“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.
Donna Mcgowan, the country director at British Council Nigeria, pledged to provide continued support and expertise to Nigeria’s education policies aimed at repositioning the education sector.
”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.
