Revealed: Why Chibok Girls Don’t Speak English

People have been asking questions why the school girls who were abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok community, Borno  did not communicate in English in the interviews they granted.

One of the freed schoolgirls, who did not give her name, disclosed that one of the reasons why they've been speaking hausa in the interviews is because of the trauma they are going through. They feel the Boko Haram insurgents are still watching them so they switch to Hausa, the dominant language in the North without realising it because the insurgents hate anything that has to do with Western education and the ability to speak the English language is an indication to them that one has Western education.

According to report, one of the reason for this situation is the poor standard of education and the quality of teachers in public schools across the state.

English language is secondary as most of the teachers in the rural areas and the students prefer speaking their own dialect either in the classrooms or during school hours.

It was also gathered from one of the teachers in the school, Mr. Amos Dawi, that Chibok and other schools in the state have no English or Mathematics teachers.

"Rarely would students from JSS I to SS III have these teachers throughout their stay in school. In fact, most of these students are not taught English properly from year one to their final year," he said.

He added that the students share a part of the blame as they are more devoted to farming than their education.

An educationist, Dr. James John attributed the poor quality of teachers to lack of training and retraining of the teachers by the Borno State Teaching Service Board.

A student named Yakubu Iliya said the teachers were to blame because if the ones who are qualified do not take their work seriously as they are hardly ever supervised by ministry officials.

The Chibok girls reflected the quality of teachers in public schools in Borno State. Over 95 per cent of students in public schools in the State cannot express themselves in English, although, their written English is reportedly better.