Nigeria Drops Mother Tongue Lessons in Primary Schools, Switches Back to English

Nigeria’s education leaders have ended a rule that required teaching young children in their local languages during the first few years of school. From now on, English will be the main way of teaching from nursery classes right up to higher studies.

The education minister, Tunji Alausa, said the three-year-old plan did not work well and must stop at once. It started under the last minister, Adamu Adamu, who believed children pick up lessons better in their home tongue. This idea matches reports from United Nations experts on how best to teach small kids.

But Alausa pointed to weak test scores in places that used local languages a lot. He mentioned results from exam boards like WAEC, NECO, and JAMB. “We saw huge numbers of failures in these tests in some parts of the country where they pushed the mother tongue too hard,” the minister explained.

Nigeria’s schools struggle with bad teaching, lack of books, low wages for staff, and frequent walkouts by teachers. While most children start primary school, fewer than half finish secondary level. Around 10 million youngsters do not go to school at all—the highest number anywhere, say UN figures.

People have different views on the change. An education expert, Dr Aliyu Tilde, welcomed it. “Does Nigeria have enough trained teachers for all our local languages? No. And the big exams are in English anyway. What schools really need is good teachers,” he said.

A parent of two young pupils, Hajara Musa, agreed. “English is spoken all over the world, so it’s best for kids to learn in it from the beginning, not later on,” she added.

On the other hand, a social expert, Habu Dauda, felt it was too soon to quit. “Three years is not enough to test such a big idea. The government should have put in more money and time,” he said.

The move highlights Nigeria’s tough choice between keeping its many local tongues alive and meeting the needs of a single school system and a world where English matters most for jobs and trade.