A decades-old education policy that requires children to be taught in local language in the first three years of primary school is failing to gain traction. The policy loosely defines local language, or a vernacular, to be the language of instruction in immediate environment of a child. It also allows for English language to be taught as a subject, before being used as the medium for instruction in later schooling. Educationists are worried that the policy is not taking hold across the country, a blame they lay on the government, educators and parents alike.
"We are only not implementing what is in our laws. That is the major problem of this country," says Sani Abdullahi, an education official with the Universal Basic Education Board in Jigawa State.
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