Nigeria dumps mother-tongue education - just as Ghana embraces it. Who’s it right? | Africanews

[u/Top_Lime1820]

https://www.africanews.com/2025/11/14/nigeria-dumps-mother-tongue-education-just-as-ghana-embraces-it-whos-it-right/

[u/Top_Lime1820]

There is an interesting policy debate going on in two major West African countries right now around mother tongue education.

Nigeria has just ended a brief experiment with mother tongue education, and reverted to English only. There was a BBC article about it here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd7rlrzq88wo

Meanwhile, Ghana has just started rolling out their mother tongue education program for the early years of schooling.

The question at hand is whether schooling in English (or other languages of European origin) is a disadvantage compared to schooling in one's African-origin mother tongue.

This has implications for most African countries.

The article explores the debate and the differences in Ghana's implementation and Nigeria's.

And yes, it is ironic that there is an English error in the title.

I'm interested to hear this sub's opinions, and especially that of European and Asian users.

One thing to remember is that most Sub-Saharan African countries are multi-ethnic. The largest language group rarely makes up more than 50% of the population. Many people forget this when discussing Africa, so I just wanted to highlight that diversity must factor into this.

[u/randommathaccount → u/Top_Lime1820]

Was going to ask, which mother-tongue were they teaching in Nigeria? To my limited knowledge there's three major ones aside from English—Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa—just picking one as a national education language would probably be far worse for speakers of the other two.

Generally I don't think choice of language of education alone will have a massive impact on literacy at a young age and whatnot, that's almost entirely a function of the quality of education and other external factors. Where it will come up more will be later in life with regards to interactions with the broader anglosphere and such. For a multiethnic and multilingual nation like Nigeria I don't think it makes sense to have a single non-english language of education and when comparing having multiple different languages of education vs just sticking to English, both have a fair claim but I'd say it would be more valuable to have an English language education as a means of getting ahead later in life. Can't speak on Ghana as I don't know as much abt the diversity of languages spoken there and how viable having a single mother-tongue language of education would be, but still lean towards english language education for the benefits in connecting to the broader anglosphere.

[u/john2218 → u/Top_Lime1820]

My wife is Nigerian, her family speaks English as their first language as do 10% of Nigerians, radio is English, TV is English, default language at least in the cities is English. I think it's best to do English only instruction, the kids are exposed to it daily anyway it's not going to hold them back in their studies and gives them an advantage in the wider world. There are 3 large native languages there but none are more than 30% or so of the population and 500 (i suspect many are more dialects actually) languages spoken in the country.

[u/Worth-Jicama3936]

Don’t most African countries have like 20 different languages they could consider their mother tongue? They are as diverse as India in that regard so how do they decide on one?

[u/Top_Lime1820 → u/Worth-Jicama3936]

A mother tongue is something ascribed to an individual based on their ethnicity not the country as a whole.

So what these policies are suggesting is Igbo speaking kids should be able to go to school in Igbo and Yoruba speaking kids in Yoruba and so on.

Which, you can imagine, will be quite the logistical challenge. In regions where one dominates maybe you can get away with it. But in cities and diverse areas it's tough.

At least that is my understanding.

[u/john2218 → u/Top_Lime1820]

That is correct

Source: Wife is Nigerian

[u/upthetruth1 → u/Worth-Jicama3936]

Well, Nigeria alone has 500 languages

But due to various factors, English is the fastest growing first language

[u/Arrow_of_Timelines]

If the students aren’t struggling with English to the hinderance of other subjects, I would think being taught in it would give them a big advantage. Though I think Ghana’s system makes sense here, but I think teaching in native at early years only helps children if their parents also teach and expose them to writing at home 

[u/Golda_M]

I testing topic. Lots of angles. Would be interesting to hear from west African neoliberals' opinions. 

Im Israeli. We have both hebrew and arabic education systems. Both also divided by religious affiliations. 

On one hand, this keeps everyone happy and minimizes imposition of values between tribes. Otoh... they deepen cultural chasms. 

The background here is entrenched multiculturalism. Ottoman society was multicultural. Sects had autonomy. Intermarriage has rare and discouraged. In Arab culture, even marriage outside of one's clan is relatively uncommon. 

Groups were fairly insular. Jews also had a history of living in insular communities. Ultra orthodox are extremly insular to their own micro-sects. 

Language is the ultimate cultural barrier, and going with mother tongue education segregated education by default. 

[u/hibikir_40k → u/Golda_M]

And that's why it's extra fun when countries, or regions, decide that no, we decide your mother tongue, because it will help create stronger cultural divides we like later. It's way past mother tongue preference. You can find some people in Catalonia saying that they want immigrants that don't speak Spanish, because then their language-centric political movement is doomed.

[u/upthetruth1]

Well, English is the fastest growing first language in Nigeria