₦airaland Forum

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? Share our petition

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. Share our petition

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.

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

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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.

Sign and share! Also keep the conversation going on social media, #ReformIELTSPolicy

https://www.change.org/p/dear-uk-home-office-stop-asking-nigerians-to-write-english-proficiency-tests-reformieltspolicy-now?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=4ae01240-731c-11ec-92af-999cd4365cd8

Previous thread: https://www.nairaland.com/6940265/ielts-uk-money-spinning-venture-rips

SECONDED,
because English is the primary medium of instruction in Nigeria at all levels of education,
We don't need IELTS at all.

Most or if not all Caribbean countries do not take the English test so why should African colonies do?

We are still signing the petition as we type.
More signatures needed from sane, honest and hardworking Nigerians.

BUT on the other hand,
Looking at things from the other perspective (Typical Of Dem MANNA, that do not go jorojarajoro on an issue, May Baba 70 soul continue to Rest in PerfectPeace. )

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

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

WoundedLamb:
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 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:

Lol
Chairman,
You even got the time to explain basic English to these kids in here.
We have come to realized that replying them is just a waste of time and space,
Hence we ignoring such entities.
Thanks for teaching him the basics.
That is social media for you,
A place where some uncultured kids abuse those the age of their parents.
The best thing is just to ignore and move on.
We found out that ignoring them kills them more .

How many mentions are we even gonna reply,
A quater of the mentions you see below (screenshot attached) are from this trolls and nonentities,
While the remaining 75% are from our clients, friends and well wishers on Nairaland.

Thanks for the heads-up sir.
And thanks for taking your time out to school the kiddo.
Do have a wonderful year ahead!
One Love.

Damnnn niggar
Isoright

We way know and sabi speak English


Still them nor want exempt us from that exam

.

No need for any IELTS.

Let's do it
Ielts na scam

Hmm

Ok

Make I carry my own placard go British High Commission

[img]https://c./tHWzKQssV3AAAAAC/despicable-me3-despicable-me3gi-fs.gif[/img]

Meanwhile Nairaland wan make una go write IELTS...

Yes, these people have been milking Nigerians and other African countries for long with this their rubbish test.

Who made English the lingua franca of Nigeria?
With English the ligua franca, they are still compelling Nigerians to write it on a biannual basis.

IELTS is exploitation on English speaking African countries.

lalasticlala:
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

That is why it is not good to be the member of a poor group.
When we want salvation from collective poverty, we know what to do.

Hopefully.
Let them scrap it so we can start TOEFL own too

Love this!

Based on the level of English seen on Nairaland - No 1

No 2 and 3 absolutely

I'll sign the petition as well.

Fantastic ! Africa don suffer reach...... Some has attempted d exam like 4-5 times.....this is daylight fraud.......we no blame them, if our country is okay who'll think of migrating or studying abroad.

I support this petition. Although there are a few universities across the UK one can secure admission without writing IELT examination.

That examination sabi fall person hand ehn

Adebaba1:
Let's do it
Ielts na scam

Na by force

lalasticlala:
https://www.change.org/p/dear-uk-home-office-stop-asking-nigerians-to-write-english-proficiency-tests-reformieltspolicy-now?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=4ae01240-731c-11ec-92af-999cd4365cd8

Previous thread: https://www.nairaland.com/6940265/ielts-uk-money-spinning-venture-rips

Nigerians are actually deficient in 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.

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

Since dem see say we dey write Jamb for our own country in oda to gain admission...


Na why dem too dem introduce dere own also na dere own Jamb b dat dey learn from us....

Why won't they, when we promote what ever rubbish they throw at us and discard our originality..

Bigger nation will always milk small/lower ones..

Grasshopper wey no dey chop others, no grow bigger...

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)

H

Corruption runs deep in all sectors and this is one of them......its a means of income generation for host country at the detriment of applicants.