#ReformIELTSPolicy: Over 36,000 People Sign Petition To Stop English Proficiency Test For Nigerians
A petition to stop foreign institutions from demanding English language proficiency test like International English Language Testing System (IELTS) from Nigerians have been launched and has garnered many signatures.
As at Wednesday afternoon, over 36,000 people have signed the petition with a 50,000 signature target and the figure is expected to increase as the day goes by.
The petition was initiated by a youth-led open-source platform for policy ideas that address the world’s most pressing challenges called Policy Shapers.
It was addressed to the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom, Priti Patel and a part of the petition 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?
According to the think tank’s statement on change.org where the petition is hosted, no country in Africa, out of the 27 who list English as one of their official languages is on the Home Office list of countries exempted from taking the test.
This is despite the fact that these African countries are former British colonies and belong to the commonwealth.
Meanwhile, the UK Home Office has exempted Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, and ten other countries from those who would require the test.
Many foreign universities, who are either in English speaking countries or have courses taught in the language, demand the IELTS as a requirement for admitting international students or for migration purpose.
However, Policy Shapers argue that a test that costs more than three times the minimum wage in Nigeria and the result expires in two years, should not be required of Nigerians since the country is predominantly English speaking.
In an interview with The PUNCH, founder of Policy Shapers, Ebenezar Wikina, expressed that the campaign became necessary after observing that many Nigerians had lost opportunities due to their inability to afford the test, despite having tertiary education in the English language.
He added;
While advocating for this as a team, we found that there were many more young Africans who felt strongly about the issue, so we set up a task force with over 70 volunteers and we have all been working to push the movement together. Everything came together organically. At the moment, our petition has over 25,000 signatures with more than 2,000 comments in support of this advocacy movement.
The campaign has also received the endorsement of the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who stated that Nigerians deserved benefits such as an exemption from the test as former British colonies while speaking at 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.
Wikina himself has contributed to making an American institution, Nexford University, change its English language admission requirement.
In February 2020, Wikina 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.
Policy Shapers and other Nigerians are demanding three things:
1. Nigeria is added to UK Home Office’s IELTS exemption list;
2. cancellation of the 2-year expiry clause of the test; or
3. Reduce test cost and increase validity period from 2 to 5 years.
While the UK Home Office is yet to respond to the think tank’s request for an explanation on why Nigeria is not exempted, Policy Shapers has increased the target of the petition to 50,000 signatures.
