I signed the petition late last year, I implore nairalanders to also sign the petition. How can we have all our education from elementary to University level in English, and you are still asking us to pay for IELTS and write the exams. The worst is that if you write it and pass, within two years, it's expired, and it is expensive, almost 100k. These whites are just milking us like dairy cow.

The British don't trust some Nigerians to speak passable English. That's one of the reasons.

PerseDew:



Just to add that indeed your objectivity is indeed in doubt for I see no reason why after someone did not understand the word "viable", you decided to add it to your list of "reasons".

We are discussing English, yet you use "indeed" twice in the same sentence.

Exactly... Racism @ its peak
One day we shall overcome...






I'M AN AFRICAN
I'M A NIGERIAN

Finally!

This petition is long overdue

perambulator:


Nigerians are actually very bad at english especially the new generation. Just read articles on Nairaland. A good example is the common use of the word "staffs" instead of "staff"

I have noticed that Ghanaians and south African countries Zambia, Tanzania etc have a better grasp of English than Nigerians. Dont assume when speaking to a young Nigerian that they actually understand what you are saying. Nigerians have a habit of hearing one word and construing another meaning to it. Today Someone was trolling me because he clearly did not understand the meaning of the word "viable".

Americans speak terrible English too.
For instance, your write up according to the Grammarly on my phone has 11 errors.
Is 11errors not too much for someone condemning Nigerians English language?
Let's stop humiliating ourselves.
There is no reason for us to be writing IELTS

Raph82:
I signed the petition late last year, I implore nairalanders to also sign the petition. How can we have all our education from elementary to University level in English, and you are still asking us to pay for IELTS and write the exams. The worst is that if you write it and pass, within two years, it's expired, and it is expensive, almost 100k. These whites are just milking us like dairy cow.

The problem with "education" is your education is only as good as the quality of education you receive. I do not blame those who got inferior education and got a certificate who feel they are educated, when in reality they were poorly educated. GIGO = garbage in garbage out!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCG2ZYxaqAY

Adebaba1:
Let's do it
Ielts na scam

Maybe not... but that 2years attached could be. What's the need for the expiry date?

osuofia2:

IELT should be scrapped for Nigerians, I have been studying English language right from my primary school days to university level. English is my official language of communication because i dare not speak my mother tongue or pidgin during official hours because it would be termed a vernacular .
As a matter of fact i have interacted with a lot of those so called white English speaker both orally and writing and i can tell you I write better English than them.
#Saynotoexploitation

Your write up is full of grammatical errors.

Lol

Have just signed.
I will keep saying this, the bias against Africa is so disheartening.
We are all we have fellas.

Omicron007:
[s][/s]

Shift one side so that people that have sensible comments on this matter can speak.

We are talking IELTS here, not some useless thread where you come and spam with your long useless and rubbish epistles which you don't even bother to read before posting.

I know of someone who claimed he read Crop Production from a state university but had to take up a career in ass-licking and defending failure and mediocrity as a job.
Of what relevance is the IELTS to such a person?

You just dumped him where he truly belongs...

In the trash bin.

Salute

I support this move

I'm neither for or against the petition. A lot of Nigerians have issues with proper use of English Language and so the test seems necessary. I recently wrote my IELTS and the result wasn't bad. The bone of contention should be the expiry date. I see no reason why such exam should have an expiry date. It's really absurd.

I’m a patriotic Nigeria but IELTS should not be cancelled. IELTS is not really meant to rip us off or downgrade us. If you’ve been to an English speaking country, you’ll understand why IELTS is not just an exam for you to pass for immigration sake, it’s also meant to help you integrate well in the host country. IELTS has listening, reading, writing and speaking. Our intonation, pitch and pronunciation need to be improved. Just yesterday, I went to Subway to get ‘Savoury turkey ranch’. I repeated up to four times and still, I was not properly understood. Eventually, I had to point at the picture in the display. It wasn’t because I was saying nonsense but my pitch was wrong and I wasn’t stressing the right syllable. That was because I was having sour throat. Most Nigerians just pronounce words and assume it’s correct. There is a place for tone and stress. For instance, turkey is pronounced as ‘Teki’ and not ‘Turki’. Now, is it ‘tekii’ or ‘teeki’ or just ‘teki’.

By the way, to get PR in Canada, you’ll still need to write IELTS despite writing it for immigration purpose. What do you have to say about that?

The Validity period of IELTS should be increased to atleast five years while they should reduce the cost of registration to be between 30k & 35k.
This is another milk industry established by the UK in Naija.
If you have attended this exam and see the influx of Nigerians coming for it, some for the second, third, fourth and even fifth time, you will see reasons why this clarion call is sacrosanct.
Remember, if you are not a victim today, you may be tomorrow.
Imagine the current frustration faced by young Nigerians at the German embassy since over two years now. Securing admission in Germany is not an issue again but but getting a visa nterview appointment date is like a Carmel passing through the eye of a needle.
Let us arise in unity to condem injustice for who knows the next victim .....

You can't blame them. If the country is doing well like theirs, people won't seek greener pastures. I blame our leaders. "Beggars can't be choosers", whatever criteria they put we have no choice.

airsaylongcome:


Starting a sentence with "Because" already provides enough reason why you should be writing IELTS

Starting a sentence with the word "because" is acceptable provided the initial clause is followed by another independent clause that completes the sentence (separated by a comma). The guy's construct is correct. If anything, it shows he's got a good command of the language.

"Because English is the primary medium of instruction in Nigeria at all levels of education, we don't need IELTS at all."

In the above sentence, the initial clause "because English is the primary medium of instruction in Nigeria at all levels of education" is followed by the independent clause "we don't need IELTS at all". He also did not forget the comma. This makes a complete sentence. The same sentence can be written as "we don't need IELTS at all because English is the primary medium of instruction in Nigeria at all levels of education".

"Because" is a subordinate conjunction and, therefore, makes the clause it appears in dependent (unable to stand on its own as a sentence). Kids and learners of the language sometimes forget to add the independent clause after the dependent one introduced by the conjuction. This is why teachers tell them never to begin a sentence with the word. This way, they can ensure the independent clause always comes first.

Cc:

Please, I write professional exams which expires in three years and it worth it. U need to be certified as an English user so u can be able to teach people in non English countries even online classes

perambulator:



We are discussing English, yet you use "indeed" twice in the same sentence.

It's a mistake that I have corrected. I did not bother to point out yours in your original post cos I saw them as mistakes. So even though you have made some corrections, you still have to go back and make a few corrections. For example: "Today Someone..." to "Today someone...".

Adebaba1:
Let's do it
Ielts na scam

It's nonsense and lacks sincerety!
Would the English speaking rise to the occasion and why should Nigerians be defrauded in an open manners like this?
There is total collaboration between those dwindling Nigerians and the National Assembly whose duties are to ensure that Nigerians get justice but are all looking the other ways round like custom service because they have money to fly their Children abroad !
Too Shameful!

airsaylongcome:
We really have misplaced priorities in this country sha. So of all our problems in the country IELTS is what we should be protesting about?

With the terrible English we speak and write in this country? You see people say "I base in Owerri" or [b]"Am from Ibadan" [/b]or the really horrible one of "Are my to bring my credentials along?"

Even those that think they are very elite will drop a bombshell of "I will pay installmentally "

We speak a variant of English that is non-standard. We need to be evaluated to see if we speak and write the standard variants. Many of us can identify the standard variant if written but a large percentage of Nigerians cannot speak or write standard English (myself included)

This is very common and annoying, especially when the writer is a graduate.

I ask myself that question that why are we made to write IELTs. Is it that our educational system has been deemed bad and so irrelevant that they don't even believe our O'level English results organised by a recognised West African Exams body? Me I feel it's corruption and bad image we have portrayed to the outside world. No one even believes in this country anymore.. Even Nigerians don't believe in the system that produced them anymore. It's so sad and sickening. No one can love America and Canada more than Canadians and Americans. Same way no one can love Nigeria more than Nigerians. We all want to run away from our problems thinking it's the whites that will help us solve the problems. No matter how much we run away, we all cannot finish running away. Nigeria will always remain for us and for our children and generation unborn.

post=109708172:


The English spoken and written by Nigerians,
in recent times, is terrible and getting WORSE.
We look at the writing and comments from Heads of Schools, even private schools in Nigeria and we are shocked and dismayed.
You see things like "why did you CRIED",
when did you BOUGHT it", the past and present tenses never agree.
The same time spent watching BBNaija should be spent learning the Use of English!

CcLib

You're talking as if it's only Nigerians that type with all those errors. Have you taken time to go through a Twitter/Facebook thread dominated by Americans? Have you listened to them talk? Especially in a group? You hear words that can never even make it to slanguage dictionaries. Some of them type so much rubbish, that you have to read six times, to get the gist - most times without punctuations too.

Check Jamaican threads on the internet. Check all these other countries on the exemption list.

We Nigerians have impeccable vocabulary compared to (some of) these people. Put Nigeria on the pedestal she belongs abeg.

P.S. I have signed the petition.

Funny enough some of us served punishment for speaking our Language referred to as vernacular in Secondary School.
I was ashamed of myself when I took my children to my home town in December and all they could speak was English still they will need to pay for IELTS in the nearest future.

perambulator:


Nigerians are actually very bad at english especially the new generation. Just read articles on Nairaland. A good example is the common use of the word "staffs" instead of "staff"

I have noticed that Ghanaians and south African countries Zambia, Tanzania etc have a better grasp of English than Nigerians. Dont assume when speaking to a young Nigerian that they actually understand what you are saying. Nigerians have a habit of hearing one word and construing another meaning to it. Today Someone was trolling me because he clearly did not understand the meaning of the word "viable".

I can understand loose use of English on the internet and social media (we all do it) but my issue is a lot of Nigerians dont actually understand the meaning or proper use of everyday English words. While we all speak in English it is sometimes difficult to communicate with the typical Nigerian in English. Very often I have to ask my staff to repeat what I just said so I know they understood what I meant. We've also bastardized so many words that very often when you use a word as intended, it is interpreted differently by many Nigerians.

While you've raised salient points, it's worth pointing out, however, that there's nothing wrong with using the word "staffs".

When referring to a group of workers, the words "staff" and "staffs" can be used interchangeably.

PerseDew:


It's a mistake that I have corrected. I did not bother to point out yours in your original post cos I saw them as mistakes. So even though now you have made some corrections, you will still have to go back correct "Today Someone..." to "Today someone...".

In any event my issue with Nigerians and English is actually communication. I couldn't care less about such things on social media or the internet. I very often do not put an apostrophe on my "don't" or bother with punctuation when I am on social media. My biggest issue is the use of words, the understanding of those words and their meaning because without that we don't have communication. The purpose of language is to communicate!!!! When I say many Nigerian do not understand English, many do not seem to truly understand the meaning of the words they use, or the words you say to them. Use of words like "staffs" is annoying but I get used to it, what is really annoying is when I use a word as it is defined but someone interprets it differently, which happens very often, then we have a communication problem and thats why I say many Nigerians really do not understand English. many do not understand the meanings of English words they use everyday.


I gave the example of the word "viable" in an earlier communication. "Viable" simply means probability of success, but the guy interpreted it differently and thats a typical scenario with a Nigerian. But in reality, saying that something is "not viable" isnt ambiguous but it is only a Nigerian that reads a different meaning to "not viable". To everybody else it simply means low probability of success and not necessarily a verdict of the substance of the subject matter.

You might think you can speak and understand English until you travel to an English speaking country and you realize you drop what you know and learn English like you are a toddler.

airsaylongcome:
We really have misplaced priorities in this country sha. So of all our problems in the country IELTS is what we should be protesting about?

With the terrible English we speak and write in this country? You see people say "I base in Owerri" or "Am from Ibadan" or the really horrible one of "Are my to bring my credentials along?"

Even those that think they are very elite will drop a bombshell of "I will pay installmentally "

We speak a variant of English that is non-standard. We need to be evaluated to see if we speak and write the standard variants. Many of us can identify the standard variant if written but a large percentage of Nigerians cannot speak or write standard English (myself included)

The so called white are even worse at speaking their own language

What UK fear the most is the possibility of igniting a domino effect, which is, the protesting of other countries to demand exemption from the test. Their biggest cash cow are India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Kenya, and many others. A joint population of close to two billion people. The UK makes billions of pounds annually and won't give it up. If Nigeria is exempted, Kenya and God forbid, India with their 1.3 billion citizens who are very western will demands theirs. Thats bad for business.

This is a prime example of neo colonialism. They have left, but easy money keep coming. The best way to fight it is for African leaders to develop their own educational sector, and prevent their citizens from passing through the British cash machine. Not being pessimistic but I don't think this petition will go anywhere. It would be ignored. Democracy is just a dressing (the ideology that majority votes determines the rule). The world is ruled by interest and few elites, who are detached from the public

Seconded. This is a cash cow for certain governments. They make lots of money from these tests.