Language Policy on Education in Nigeria: Challenges of Multilingual Education and Future of English Language

Abstract

Despite the fact that the importance of language is recognized in National Policy on Education (NPE), the language of instruction in multilingual Nigeria has always been a matter of concern to educators and educational planners.This study investigated the current situation of educational policy in Nigeria, highlighting the challenges of multilingual education and future of English language.A total number of one hundred (100) teachers at basic education level (this comprises lower primary and junior secondary school as contained in the National Policy on Education) in Gusau the capital city of Zamfara State, Nigeria, were selected as participants.The findings revealed that provisions of multilingual education contained in the National Policy on Education are not properly implemented by the majority of the teachers and the government has not taken the implementation of the provisions any serious.The findings also revealed that the future of English in the Nigerian educational sector is very bright since it now seems to be the language of officialdom.The findings further revealed that some of the challenges of multilingual education provisions include: the multilingual challenge; poor policy planning and implementation; and teacher quality and curriculum materials.This study recommends that the Federal Government of Nigeria should do more in the enforcement of the multilingual provisions in all sectors of education and also develop more educational resources and orthographies of indigenous languages to meet the demands of multilingual education.

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