The Federal Government has reversed its 2022 National Language Policy, which stipulated that the language of instruction from early childhood to Primary Six should be the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community.
Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said English will now be the language of instruction in Nigerian schools from primary through tertiary levels.
Alausa, who spoke at the opening of the Language in Education International Conference 2025, organised by the British Council, said Nigerian children have been performing poorly in public examinations because they were taught in the mother tongue.
Citing evidence-based, data-driven research by his ministry, he said the policy had “destroyed” the education system, as pupils and students often advanced to higher classes without learning essential skills.
