Some Nigerian policy shapers have kicked off campaign for the discontinuation of International English Language Testing System (IELTS), alleging that it is a form of extorting poor Nigerians.
This was contained in a petition addressed to the Home Office of the United Kingdom and as at the moment of this publication, 38,831 have signed the petition.
The group held that the petition is sharing to raise public awareness and also engage the Home Office/ High Commission over the perceived imbalance evidenced by the IELTS.
The group further compared IELTS with its French equivalent, Diplôme d’études en langue française (DELF), or the advanced version, DALF.
(DELF and DALF are six separate diplomas issued by the French Ministry for National Education to certify the French language skills.)
It noted that whereas Nigeria is not a French-speaking country, if a Nigerian writes DELF for N16,000, the result is valid for life.
However, despite being an English-speaking country, one has to write IELTS for N89,500 and the result expires in two years!
Citing his reason for signing the petition Winifred Otokhina said: “Nigerians are being extorted on a daily basis because of IELTS.
“English is our official language and so we have no business writing IELTs. The price keeps increasing every year for no reason. There needs to be a stop to this.”
Fiona Lovatt added: “Every Nigerian with WAEC or NECO has been examined in English. These are the people who must then find a great deal of money to sit IELTS.
“As members of the Commonwealth and as major contributors to the economic and military might of the UK, some issues of parity and equity are missing in the current policy which seems designed to continue to under-develop Africa.”
The petition titled “Stop asking Nigerians to write IELTS” reads:
“Why should Nigerians be made to write English language proficiency examinations that cost more than thrice our minimum wage ($210) and the result expires every two years?
No African Country On Exemption List
The UK Home Office has a list of 18 countries whose citizens are exempt from writing an English proficiency test (IELTS, TOEFL, etc.) when they seek to study or migrate to the UK, including; Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Malta, St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, to mention a few.
However, it will interest you to know that there is no Anglophone African country (out of 20+ English-speaking countries on the continent) on the Home Office list.
Not Nigeria, not Ghana, not Kenya, not South Africa. NOT EVEN ONE.
Despite the fact that these African countries are former British colonies and belong to the Commonwealth! Why?
The Home Office told the BBC, who did a report on this issue, that for a country to be listed on its IELTS Exemption list, 51% of its population must speak English as a first language. Fair enough right?
Since October we have written to the Home Office as a collective of campaigners requesting for the modalities it put in place to measure English proficiency in the 18 countries on its list as we believe same should be applied to Nigeria and other Anglophone countries on the continent.
More than 3 months after our initial email and several follow-up emails (plus tons of social media posts), the UK Home Office has refused to respond to this urgent request.
Nigeria Ranks High On EF Index
Nigeria was one of the 31 countries out of 112 across the world who ranked ‘Very High’ or ‘High’ on the 2021 Education First (EF) English Proficiency Index.
With 560 index points, Nigeria ranked 3rd in Africa just behind Kenya (587 points) and South Africa (606 points).
EF EPI 2021 scores have been found to correlate strongly with TOEFL iBT 2019 scores (r=0.81) and IELTS Academic Test 2019 scores (r=0.73). These correlations show that, while these tests have different designs and test taker profiles, they reveal similar trends in national English proficiency. (Read full report here)
Why We Must Act Now!
The issue of language equality has never been more urgent even as the UK opens up conversations on decolonization.
We believe this is an challenge that needs to be addressed urgently and we need more voices echoing the need for this reform to the UK Home Office.
This is why we need your signature and we believe we will win. Why are we so confident?
In February 2020, Ebenezar Wikina, Founder, Policy Shapers stood up to Nexford University and was willing to forgo his business degree admission when he asked why Nigerians should be made to write English Proficiency exams before gaining admission into the American university.
His tweet with screenshots of his reply to their admissions team went viral and this, in addition to his strong argument, made the University change its admission policy.
As a result, since 2020 people who are from English-speaking countries can take the introductory course at Nexford and have their grade serve as a measure of their proficiency.
If he made this change happen alone, imagine how much more we can all do together?
Vice President Endorses Campaign
Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo endorsed our campaign during an engagement with 2021 Mandela Washington Fellows and US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard.
He said, “I entirely agree that as an English-speaking country, we should be beneficiaries of some concession as opposed to being forced every two years to take the same test especially if one has passed it before.
“This is something that we should really work on. I will ask the Minister of Education as well as the Minister of Youths and Sports exactly what is going on about this.”
Our Campaign Policy Asks
- Include Nigeria in UKVI exemption list
Following Nigeria’s high score in the EF English Proficiency Index over the years, our inclusion in the UK Home Office’s list of Majority English Speakers will mean Nigerians no longer have to prove their English Proficiency anymore.
Or…
- Cancel 2-year expiry clause
Seeing that we’re an English-speaking country, we believe that our English language knowledge doesn’t expire.
Thus, a great policy reform will be the cancellation of the 2-year expiry period from English language tests in Nigeria. Just like the French DELF test, people should be able to write the test once and be certified for life.
Or…
- Reduce test cost, increase validity period
A good compromise, although not ideal for us, is for the cost of the test to be reduced by at least 30% and for the validity period to be increased from 2 years to 5 years.”
Interested persons can sign the petition here.
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