Nigeria to abolish English in junior school
Local languages will now take center stage, however, as the education minister claims that when students are taught in their own home tongue, "pupils learn far better."
Boakyewaa Lawrencia 
The Nigerian government has unveiled a plan to encourage the teaching of local languages to primary school students rather than English.
On Wednesday, Education Minister Adamu Adamu informed the media that the National Language Policy, a new framework, had been given the go-ahead to go into effect.
It states that the first six years of primary school instruction must be delivered in the student's mother tongue.
Nigeria's official language is English, which is also the language of instruction at all educational institutions.
Local languages will now take center stage, however, as the education minister claims that when students are taught in their own home tongue, "pupils learn far better."
He agreed that it would be difficult to put the new policy into practice since it would "take a lot of work to design the teaching materials and attract the teachers."
The fact that Nigerians speak more than 600 different languages presents another difficulty.
When the government will begin adopting the new system is not yet known.
Before beginning the implementation in earnest, the Nigerian authorities claim they will first offer teaching resources and instructors for the regional languages.
