Open letter to minister of education Tunji Alausa on reversal of National Language Policy

By John Tyavbee Ajai

DEAR Honourable Minister,

I write with deep respect and a sense of responsibility as Professor John Tyavbee Ajai of Taraba State University, Jalingo. My decision to write follows your remarks at the 2025 Language in Education International Conference in Abuja, where you announced that English will now serve as the sole medium of instruction from pre-primary to tertiary levels. In several press reports, you also stated that the 2022 National Language Policy “failed” and that WAEC, NECO, and JAMB failures are concentrated in regions that “oversubscribed” the mother-tongue approach. You went further to say that the use of indigenous languages in classrooms “has literally destroyed education” in some parts of the country.

Honourable Minister, these are far-reaching claims that deserve serious, evidence-based discussion. You invited scholars and stakeholders who possess contrary evidence to present verifiable data. In that spirit, and as someone who has devoted his career to researching mathematics education in Nigerian classrooms, I would like to offer this response in good faith and in the interest of constructive, research-led engagement.

Indigenous-Language Instruction Does not Cause Examination Failure
THE persistent underperformance in WAEC, NECO, and JAMB examinations cannot logically be attributed to the use of indigenous languages. Instead, it emerges from long-standing systemic weaknesses that have hindered learning for years. Nigeria’s education sector has suffered from chronic underfunding, leaving many schools without the required resources for effective teaching and learning. Teacher welfare has been routinely neglected, with delayed salaries, unpaid allowances, and stagnant promotions negatively impacting morale and productivity. Unresolved disputes with ASUU continue to reflect underlying dissatisfaction with infrastructure, research support, and policy responsiveness. Overcrowded classrooms, declining facilities, shortages of learning materials, and weak teacher preparation, especially at foundational levels, further compromise learning. Added to these are socio-economic pressures, insecurity, and irregular attendance, which disrupt schooling across many regions. These structural deficiencies, not the use of indigenous languages, are responsible for students’ struggles in national examinations.

The Statement that Indigenous Languages “Destroyed Education” is not Evidence-based
GLOBAL research does not support the idea that mother-tongue instruction undermines learning. Instead, international bodies and decades of scholarship consistently affirm that children learn best when taught in a language they understand. UNESCO has long championed mother-tongue instruction as the strongest foundation for early comprehension, literacy, and numeracy. The World Bank’s policy synthesis Loud and Clear similarly demonstrates that learners acquire skills more effectively when instruction begins in their familiar language. Africa’s leading quasi-experimental study in this area, the RISE Ethiopia study, shows that pupils who start schooling in their mother tongue and transition later to English perform significantly better in mathematics than those taught solely in English from the beginning. Cognitive science supports these findings: higher-order reasoning can only occur when learners fully grasp the language in which concepts are presented.

Nigeria’s Own Research Supports Bilingual Instruction
SINCE your call for verifiable Nigerian evidence was explicit, I offer a peer-reviewed study conducted under my supervision and published in an academic journal. The study examined the effect of bilingual English–Hausa instruction on students’ achievement in algebra (Ajai, J.T., Iyekekpolor, S.A.O., & Hanawa, H.R., 2022). Effect of Eng–Hau Medium of Instruction on Upper-Basic Students’ Achievement in Algebra. Journal of Science and Education, 3(1), 100–110. https://doi.org/10.56003/jse.v3i1.144.

The findings showed clearly that students taught through a combination of English and Hausa significantly outperformed those taught only in English. Bilingual instruction enhanced conceptual clarity, improved problem-solving skills, reduced common mathematical errors, and generated greater engagement among learners. This is verifiable, peer-reviewed Nigerian evidence, and it directly contradicts the claim that indigenous languages weaken educational quality. Research from Ekiti, Benue, Kaduna, Kano, and other states has reinforced the same conclusion, particularly in foundational mathematics.

Leading Nations Use their Indigenous Languages and Excel
THE belief that English-medium instruction guarantees educational success is contradicted by the experience of the world’s most successful education systems. Countries with strong learning outcomes overwhelmingly rely on their own languages for instruction. China teaches mathematics and science in Mandarin and consistently leads global STEM indicators. Finland, a world leader in educational performance, teaches in Finnish, Swedish, and Sámi. Japan and South Korea rely exclusively on their indigenous languages across all levels of schooling, while New Zealand has revitalised Māori-medium programmes with positive results. Nations across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, including Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Africa, India, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, and Mexico, use indigenous languages widely in early schooling. The evidence is consistent: comprehension, not the prestige of the English language, drives effective learning.

The Real Crisis Is Systemic Neglect, not Language
NIGERIA’S educational challenges do not stem from the choice of instructional language. They originate from systemic neglect that has accumulated over several decades. Insufficient funding, weak teacher preparation, poor teacher welfare, unresolved industrial disputes, inadequate materials, deteriorating infrastructure, and limited classroom support all contribute to the current crisis. Without addressing these underlying issues, a shift to English-only instruction cannot improve learning outcomes. Instead, it risks diverting attention from the areas that truly need reform.

A Call for Evidence-Based Dialogue
IN response to your invitation for scholars to present verifiable evidence, I am pleased to offer this letter as a sincere contribution to informed, data-driven policy discourse. The overwhelming body of research, both global and Nigerian, affirms that a structured bilingual model is far more effective than an English-only approach. An exclusive reliance on English is likely to widen learning gaps, deepen inequality, and place teachers under further strain. I stand ready to present these findings formally to the Ministry, the National Council on Education, or anybody committed to evidence-based policy-making. Nigeria’s educational future depends on decisions grounded not in assumptions or fear, but in rigorous, verifiable data.

Yours sincerely,

* Prof. Ajai teaches Mathematics Education at Taraba State University, Jalingo, Nigeria