FG drops mother tongue policy, redirects schools to english led learning

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00:00The federal government has again reversed one of its major education policies, this time

00:04counselling the 2022 Mother Tongue Policy, which requires schools to teach pupils from

00:09early childhood to primary six in their indigenous languages. The announcement was made by Education

00:15Minister Dr. Tunji Alausa at the British Council's Language and Education Conference in Abuja,

00:21and later confirmed at the 69th National Council on Education meeting held in Akure between November

00:283rd and 7th. Dr. Alausa said the reversal was based on evidence, pointing to Wayek, Neko and

00:35Jamb records. According to him, show higher failure rates in regions that relied heavily on mother tongue

00:41instructions. He also noted that Nigeria does not have enough trained teachers, test books or classroom

00:47support to teach effectively in hundreds of local languages. But global bodies like UNESCO, UNICEF

00:54and the World Bank and even research published by the British Council argue that children learn

00:59faster when taught in a language they already speak. UNESCO knows that 40% of learners worldwide are

01:06taught in languages they do not understand, while World Bank data from 49 countries show higher

01:12reading scores when early schooling begins in the mother tongue. Supporting this, the famous Fafunwa study

01:19also shows that pupils taught in their mother tongue from primary 1 to 6 perform better than those taught

01:24in English. So what does this mean for Nigerian students? They will now be exposed to English

01:31earlier with one national language guiding exams and mobility across states. However, children who struggle

01:39with English may fall behind more easily and indigenous languages could lose ground in the classroom unless

01:45they are protected through culture, literature and community-based programs. The government says

01:51it welcomes more research and plans to strengthen teachers' training. But many argue the real issue

01:57isn't the policy itself, rather it is the weak planning and years of underfunding behind it. And whichever

02:04proves true, we will decide how this shift affects the Nigerian child.