Controversial school language policy cancelled

The Nigerian Government has announced it is cancelling a controversial policy that mandated the use of indigenous languages for teaching in the earliest years of schooling instead of English, reports BBC News. Education Minister Tunji Alausa said the programme, introduced just three years ago, had failed to deliver and was being scrapped with immediate effect. Instead, English will be reinstated as the medium of instruction from pre-primary levels through to university. The now-defunct programme was launched by former Education Minister Adamu Adamu, who had argued that children learnt more effectively in their mother tongue. Nigeria's education system is facing serious problems, such as poor-quality teaching, inadequate materials, low pay for teachers and numerous strikes. Some 10m children are out of school in Nigeria, more than in any other country, according to the UN. Announcing the reversal of the language policy, Alausa pointed to poor academic results from those areas which had adopted mother-tongue teaching. He cited data from the West African Examinations Council, the National Examinations Council, and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. 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. Others, however, believe the policy was abandoned prematurely. They argue that such a significant shift requires substantial investment in teacher training, the development of textbooks and learning materials, and a longer timeframe before it can be fairly judged and begin to bear fruit.

Full BBC News report