Nigeria’s federal government scrapped its controversial two-year-old policy requiring indigenous languages as the primary medium of instruction in early schooling on Wednesday, mandating English across all levels from pre-primary to university in a bid to reverse dismal national exam results.
The reversal, greenlit at the 69th National Council on Education gathering in Akure last week, replaces the 2022 National Language Policy that aimed to elevate mother tongues or community dialects for pupils from early childhood through primary six, positioning English as the official bridge to higher education.
Education Minister Tunji Alausa unveiled the U-turn at the 2025 Language in Education International Conference, pinning the axing on stark data from West African Examinations Council, National Examinations Council and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board tests showing widespread flops in zones that embraced the local-language push.
“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 the mother tongue in an oversubscribed manner,” Alausa said, framing the pivot as “evidence-based governance.”526dbc “English now stands as the medium of instruction from pre-primary, primary, junior secondary, senior secondary, and tertiary education.”
He doubled down on the empirical rationale, declaring: “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.”
Schools implementing the scrapped approach reported pupils grappling with English fluency and posting higher failure rates, prompting the ministry to champion data-driven dialogue over sentimental attachments.
To soften the blow, the government is rolling out teacher upskilling on literacy and numeracy basics for foundational years. Minister of State for Education Suwaiba Ahmed outlined the fix: “Now we are designing a training package for teachers that focuses on literacy and numeracy. This specifically targets teachers of pre-primary to Primary One to Three. We are training them on the best methods to teach literacy and numeracy and the appropriate approach to classroom learning.”
British Council Country Director Donna McGowan pledged solidarity, affirming: “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.”
Alausa hailed the partnership as key to inclusive reforms, but critics fear the wholesale English shift could erode cultural roots in Africa’s most linguistically diverse nation, where over 500 tongues thrive. The ministry insists doors remain open for robust, fact-backed input to refine the sector.
