The Nigerian Academy of Education (NAE) has called on the Minister of Education, Maruf Alausa, to restore mother tongue as the language of instruction at the foundational levels of schooling.
In a position paper submitted to the minister on 25 November and released to journalists on Friday, the academy argued that overwhelming evidence supports early education in indigenous languages, which it said improves learning outcomes, strengthens cultural identity, and promotes inclusive national development.
The statement, signed by NAE President Emeritus Professor Olugbemiro Jegede and Secretary-General Professor Chris Chukwurah, cautioned against discontinuing mother tongue instruction without rigorous evaluation.
The Nigerian government recently cancelled the 2022 National Language Policy, designating English as the sole medium of instruction at all levels—a position Minister Alausa restated at the 2025 Language in Education Conference organised by the British Council in Abuja.
The NAE, however, maintained that research, including historic programmes such as the Ife Six-Year Project and recent bilingual education studies, “shows that pupils taught first in their native languages perform better academically, even in English, than those introduced prematurely to foreign-language instruction.”
The Academy insisted that poor performance in public examinations, often cited as justification, cannot be attributed to mother tongue instruction, which ends at primary four.
It emphasised that no empirical data supports claims that indigenous language teaching has undermined educational outcomes in the past 15 years.
Calling for immediate reinstatement of the policy, the Academy urged the government to “strengthen implementation through teacher training, improved learning materials, stakeholder engagement, and regular evidence-based reviews.”
It stressed that safeguarding early-grade learning in Nigerian languages is vital to preserving national heritage and preventing further decline in literacy.
The NAE reaffirmed its readiness to work with the Ministry to ensure a functional and culturally grounded education system for future generations.