Primary School Pupils to Learn in their Mother Tongue in Nigeria

Primary school pupils in Nigeria will now learn and be instructed in their mother tongue after the government announced a new policy aimed at promoting their native languages as opposed to English.

This was announced by country’s Education Minister Adamu Adamu on Wednesday who said new framework known as the National Language Policy had been approved for implementation.

The framework states that instruction for the first six years in primary schools will be in the mother tongue.

To support this decision, the minister said that learners learn much better if they are instructed using their mother tongue.

Prior to this framework, all learning institutions used English as the common language of teaching and learning.

Although English is the country’s official language, things are about to change as local languages take centre stage.

However, Adamu said implementation of this policy will be challenging as Nigeria has more than 600 local languages and a lot of work will be required to develop materials to teach and get the teachers who can teach in native languages.

It’s not yet known when the government will start implementing the new system.However the government suggest it will first provide teaching materials and teachers for the local languages before the implementation.