The Federal Government says it ended the use of indigenous languages as the main method of teaching in schools because the policy was not producing good results.
Minister of State for Education, Suwaiba Ahmad, said on Thursday that the decision was not due to a lack of pride in Nigerian cultures but because pupils still need strong English skills to cope with national exams and future jobs.
Speaking on Channels Television, she said many pupils struggled to switch from mother tongue back to English, which remains Nigeria’s official language.
According to her, the policy sounded good in theory but did not match the realities seen in classrooms.
She said, “By the time a child is done with the mother tongue, the transition did not happen. They are still going to take national examinations in English. Sometimes they will compete for jobs with others who have been taught in English from the start.”
Ahmad added that people who criticise the policy reversal have not gone to schools to see the challenges faced by teachers and pupils.
She stressed that the government is not saying mother tongue is bad, but that the country’s education context cannot support it as the main medium of instruction.
The minister also explained that the ministry has developed a new teacher-training package focused on helping children master literacy and numeracy early. She said the curriculum will be reduced to cut down the number of subjects and overloaded content that distracts from real learning.
The mother-tongue policy was approved in 2022 under a plan to promote the use of Nigerian languages from Primary 1 to 6, but its implementation remained difficult.
Ahmad said the government will now focus on helping pupils gain strong foundational skills using methods that work better for their learning needs.
