The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has stated it has officially cancelled the National Language Policy (NLP), which requires Nigerian schools to use indigenous languages as the medium of instruction.
This was made known on Wednesday by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, during the 2025 Language in Education International Conference organized by the British Council in Abuja.
He said, “We have seen a mass failure rate in WAEC, NECO, and JAMB in certain geopolitical zones of the country, and those are the ones that adopted the mother tongue in an oversubscribed manner.
“This is about evidence-based governance. English now stands as the medium of instruction from pre-primary, primary, junior secondary, senior secondary, and tertiary education.
“Using the mother tongue language in Nigeria for the past 15 years has literally destroyed education in certain regions. We have to talk about evidence, not emotions.
"The national policy on language has been cancelled. English now stands as the medium of instruction across all levels of education.”
The minister urged stakeholders with opposing views to present confirmable data in order to support their position, adding that the government is interested in evidence-based dialogue to improve the country’s educational sector.
NLP was approved by the FGN in 2022 with the view of promoting the use of indigenous languages in early child care education up to primary six.
The policy was created to encourage culture preservation and also give indigenous languages equal acknowledgement as English language, with English remaining the official medium of instruction in later education.