BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA: PRACTICE, ATTITUDE AND PROSPECTS.

Abstract

The Nigerian policy on Education today provides for a multilingual policy involving the learning  of child’s LI or language of the  immediate Community/environment (LIC), one of the three  major national languages (i e  Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba) and English. That this policy has not been effectively implemented is an understatement. This paper seeks to review the problems, challenges and prospects of bilingualism in Nigerian education as well as suggest ways in which bilingual programmes may be implemented successfully as to maximize benefit on the part of the student on one hand and the entire nation on the other. The attitude of students, teachers, parents and administrations towards bilingualism education were also reviewed.