- English Now Sole Medium of Instruction Nationwide
In a decisive policy reversal, the Federal Government has abolished the use of indigenous languages as the medium of instruction in Nigerian schools, reinstating English as the sole language of teaching and learning across all levels of education. The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Wednesday at the 2025 Language in Education International Conference organised by the British Council in Abuja. The now-suspended National Language Policy, introduced in 2022, had required that pupils from the Early Child Care Education stage through Primary Six be taught in their mother tongue or in the predominant language of their immediate community.
The policy was initially lauded as a step toward preserving Nigeria’s linguistic heritage and improving comprehension at the foundational level. However, the Education Minister said the government’s latest data suggested that the policy had not delivered its intended benefits. Instead, it correlated with widening performance gaps and declining results in national examinations such as WAEC, NECO, and JAMB. “We have seen mass failure rates in regions that heavily adopted mother tongue instruction,” Dr. Alausa noted. “Using local languages as the main medium of teaching for the past 15 years has, in fact, weakened educational outcomes in certain areas. Henceforth, English will serve as the official medium of instruction from pre-primary to tertiary levels.” Dr. Alausa added that the new direction was guided by empirical evidence rather than sentiment.
“This is about evidence-based governance,” he said. “The national language policy has been cancelled, and English now stands as the medium of instruction across all levels of education.” He further urged education stakeholders and researchers who hold contrary opinions to present verifiable data to support their positions, assuring that the Ministry remains open to data-driven dialogue on improving national education standards. Supporting the policy shift, Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, announced that the government is designing a new teacher training framework to strengthen literacy and numeracy skills at the foundational level.
“We’re developing a programme that will retrain teachers from pre-primary to Primary Three on effective literacy and numeracy teaching methods,” she said. Also speaking at the event, British Council Country Director, Donna McGowan, reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to Nigeria’s educational reforms. “We remain committed to partnering with the Ministry of Education to strengthen teacher development, school leadership, and language proficiency,” McGowan stated. The decision marks a major shift in Nigeria’s language-in-education policy, reigniting debates about national identity, inclusivity, and global competitiveness in the country’s schooling system.
