In Nigeria, as in much of West Africa, the ability to read in English is not only of economic use to the country, but also of educational importance to individuals, since it is the medium for almost all primary and secondary schooling. People have to move very quickly from a position of learning to read in English, to one of reading English to learn.
It is widely recognised that the primary school system in West Africa, the foundation of formal education for the few, and the only formal education for the great majority, is in a far from satisfactory condition. While this lack of literacy means that some school leavers may be inadequately prepared for life outside school, it also means that many have already lost opportunities, in that reading in English is the very skill which they are supposed to have deployed in school to gain knowledge in other fields.
