FG abandons mother tongue policy, reinstates english as sole medium of instruction

The Federal Government has officially discontinued the national policy that mandated the use of indigenous languages as the medium of instruction in Nigerian schools.

Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced the decision during the 2025 Language in Education International Conference organised by the British Council in Abuja. He explained that the reversal was approved during the 69th meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE) held in Akure, Ondo State, from November 3 to 7.

The scrapped policy, introduced in 2022 as the National Language Policy, had required that pupils from Early Childhood Education to Primary Six be taught in their mother tongue or the language of their immediate community.

Dr. Alausa said the change became necessary following evidence that the use of indigenous languages as a teaching medium had contributed to poor academic outcomes in some regions.

“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,” he said.

“This is about evidence-based governance. English now stands as the medium of instruction from pre-primary to tertiary education. Using the mother tongue for the past 15 years has literally destroyed education in certain regions. We have to talk about evidence, not emotions.”

Advocates of indigenous language education have long argued that teaching in local languages enhances comprehension and learning outcomes. In contrast, countries like China and Russia continue to use their native languages effectively in their educational systems.

However, the Nigerian government insists that data-driven assessment, not sentiment, must guide national education policy going forward.