By Oluwaseun Oyindamola Ogunleye, University of Michigan
In November 2025, the Federal Government reinstated English as the exclusive medium of instruction at all levels. While English already functions as Nigeria’s official language, this decision reversed the 2022 National Language Policy, which sought to preserve indigenous languages and promote their inclusion in education. The 2022 policy was welcomed as a long-overdue effort to align schooling with Nigeria’s extraordinary linguistic diversity, over 500 languages, and to address the absence of a coherent national language framework. Its emphasis on implementation and linguistic equity marked a shift away from colonial legacies embedded in education. The 2025 reversal raises important questions about equity, access, and the social purpose of schooling.
Nigeria’s National Policy on Education describes education as a tool for social and economic reconstruction, as well as a way to integrate individuals into their communities, nation and the world. Education in the policy is framed both as a pathway to employment and as central to identity, social belonging and global participation.
Yet globally, many education systems fall short of this ideal. Millions of learners are taught in languages they do not speak fluently, something that has negative implications for their ability to learn the foundations when in school, which is a critical building block for later learning and success In Nigeria, these challenges are intensified by scale: about 18 million children are currently out of school. It is in this context that Nigeria’s renewed English-only policy must be understood.
Colonial legacies and linguistic inequity
The dominance of English in Nigeria did not emerge naturally. During colonial rule, English became linked to administration, schooling and elite mobility. While missionaries sometimes used local languages in early education, this was often a strategic tool rather than a commitment to linguistic inclusion. Over time, English proficiency became a gateway to socioeconomic opportunity, producing a small English-speaking elite.
After independence, English remained the official language, framed as a neutral solution for managing diversity and promoting unity. Yet this choice continued to marginalize communities whose languages were excluded from schooling and governance. It has contributed to language loss, cultural erosion and unequal access to education.
The 2022 National Language Policy emerged to address these inequities. But in 2025, in defending the policy reversal, Nigeria’s Minister of Education claimed that mother-tongue instruction had contributed to declining performance on national examinations such as WAEC, NECO, and JAMB, insisting that ‘evidence, not emotions’ should guide education policy.
Can mother tongue instruction negatively impact test scores?
Such an argument has some challenges.
Firstly, framing educational ‘excellence’ only through test scores risks reinforcing existing inequalities and overlooking the deeper purposes of schooling.
Secondly, national examinations are not conducted in indigenous languages; therefore, poor performance cannot be credibly attributed to mother-tongue instruction. The possibility of translating these examinations into indigenous languages should also be considered as part of a more linguistically equitable assessment framework.
Accountability is another concern. The 2022 policy stated it would be reviewed every ten years. Only three years later, the government enacted an early reversal. This shift undermines policy stability, calls into question transparency and the investments schools and communities made in implementing the 2022 reforms, as well as points to possible implications for the long-term democratic foundations of educational policymaking.
The recent policy reversal also cites making Nigerian education more globally competitive as a rationale, with the expectation of improving outcomes and opportunities. By cultivating global citizenship education, prioritizing humanistic and social justice values over competition, and implementing locally grounded policies that safeguard linguistic dignity, education can generate equitable, context-sensitive outcomes. Such a reframing has the potential to be transformative for language policy and education, while enabling problem-solving approaches that respond to local needs and layered socio-cultural and economic realities.
Prioritizing third spaces to safeguard mother tongue
The recent policy reversal affects more than test scores. It shapes how young people understand themselves, how communities pass knowledge across generations, and whether education serves as a tool for inclusion or exclusion. Yet, there are pathways forward. Imagine a third space, a learning environment that complements formal schooling and is shaped by partnerships among communities, educators, and peers. Third spaces include after-school programmes, student-led language labs, community centres, digital platforms and youth-led initiatives. These spaces are especially important where state systems fall short. Grounded in linguistic justice, youth agency and collective problem-solving, such spaces stand in contrast to a policy that returns to English-only instruction.
Across Nigeria, youth-centred third spaces have the potential to sustain mother-tongue education even amid policy reversals. Through fostering sociocultural literacy, project-based learning, intergenerational collaboration and cross-regional dialogue, these spaces would support linguistic competence while fostering critical perspectives on equity, access and global citizenship.
Reclaiming education’s social purpose
The goal is not to exclude English, but to ensure it does not override the broader social mission of education. The 2022 policy sought to preserve indigenous languages, promote literacy and increase school participation, especially in areas where English proficiency is limited. By prioritizing English as the sole medium of instruction, the 2025 policy risks undermining these objectives.
For educators, this means treating classrooms and after-school programmes as spaces for critical inquiry into language, power and history. For policymakers and global education actors, it means recognizing third spaces as legitimate educational infrastructure, especially where millions of children remain outside formal schooling.
Ultimately, the future of linguistic justice in Nigeria will be shaped by policy conversations alongside the ongoing work of educators, students and communities who sustain languages and the knowledge they carry, often mitigating or responding to policy decisions when they risk undermining linguistic expression.
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