The Nigerian government has announced the cancellation of a controversial policy that required indigenous languages to be used as the primary medium of instruction in early childhood education instead of English.
Education Minister Tunji Alausa said the programme, introduced only three years ago, had not achieved its intended goals and was being discontinued immediately.
English will now be restored as the language of instruction from pre-primary classes all the way through tertiary education.
The now-defunct programme was launched by former Education Minister Adamu Adamu, who had argued that children learnt more effectively in their mother tongue.
At the time, Adamu argued that pupils grasped concepts more readily when taught in “their own mother tongue” – a view supported by numerous UN studies on early childhood education.
Nigeria’s education system is facing serious problems, such as poor-quality teaching, inadequate materials, low pay for teachers and numerous strikes.
Although 85% of children go to primary school, less than half complete their secondary education.
Some 10 million children are out of school in Nigeria, more than in any other country, according to the UN.
Announcing the reversal of the language policy in the capital, Abuja, Dr Alausa pointed to poor academic results from those areas which had adopted mother-tongue teaching.
He cited 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,” the minister stated.
The abrupt cancellation of the policy has drawn a mixed response from education specialists, analysts and parents.
Some have hailed the government’s decision, agreeing that the implementation was problematic and contributed to falling standards.
