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Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, on Wednesday announced the cancellation of the teaching of Indigenous languages, otherwise known as mother tongue languages, as the medium of instruction in Nigerian primary schools.
The minister, a medical doctor, announced the unprogressive move at the 2025 Language in Education International Conference organized by the British Council in Abuja.
It is a universally proven fact that children grasp new concepts faster when taught in a language they already understand. It reduces confusion and helps them connect new ideas to their daily experiences. Also, learning to read and write in a familiar language helps children master basic literacy skills more effectively. After they get literate in their first language, transferring those skills to a second and third language becomes easier.
Studies have shown that children who learn in their mother tongue develop stronger problem-solving skills. Their critical-thinking skills will also be enviable.
Global bodies, including UNESCO and the World Bank, have repeatedly found that pupils taught in their mother tongue in the early grades perform better overall, even in later subjects taught to them in foreign languages. Locally, one can’t but mention a former Minister of Education, Professor Babatunde Fafunwa, an educationist who had conducted a significant research project in Ile Ife, known as the Six-Year Primary Project. His work was a reference point for UNESCO. He later became the minister of education.
I stand to be corrected if it would not have taken Professor Wole Soyinka a longer time to win the Nobel if he hadn’t learn in his mother tongue. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s music is richer because of his Yorubaness. What about Professor Chinua Achebe? His works are so rich in Igbo culture. Even later writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
A child thinks first in his mother tongue!
And what’s more! The best a foreign writer can be is to be a good writer of Literature in English, but not English Literature.
Afro beat didn’t get international applause for nothing.
By his very act, the minister is reversing Nigeria to the colonial linguistic order.
Removing the Indigenous languages is removing our mores, values and every other thing that makes us people
The minister would have done a better job if he had resolved the ASUU crisis.
That “vernacukar” we must speak!
