BMAS TO CCMAS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FRENCH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

This article looks at the French language as a General Studies (GS) Course in Nigerian Universities through the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) curriculum. This was aimed at promoting a bilingual culture. This bilingual ideology was driven by two major factors: the fact that Nigeria is surrounded by French speaking countries, and that learning a second foreign language better equips students to face the challenges of a highly competitive world. The sudden removal of French Language as a GS course in the new NUC’s Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) became worrisome. Many questions arose because of this, hence, this study. In order to answer these questions, we resorted to the use 
of quantitative and qualitative methods. Forty-six (46) questions were generated and responded to across private, state and federal universities, cutting across all cadres of lecturers, from Assistant lecturers to professors. The institutions were spread across Central Nigeria, to the South-West, South-East and South-South. The results show the implications of the removal of French Language learning as a GS course in the CCMAS. There are far reaching implications as it also affects mass unemployment of staff.