There is an interesting policy debate going on in two major West African countries right now around mother tongue education.
Nigeria has just ended a brief experiment with mother tongue education, and reverted to English only. There was a BBC article about it here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd7rlrzq88wo
Meanwhile, Ghana has just started rolling out their mother tongue education program for the early years of schooling.
The question at hand is whether schooling in English (or other languages of European origin) is a disadvantage compared to schooling in one’s African-origin mother tongue.
This has implications for most African countries.
The article explores the debate and the differences in Ghana’s implementation and Nigeria’s.
And yes, it is ironic that there is an English error in the title.
I’m interested to hear this sub’s opinions, and especially that of European and Asian users.
One thing to remember is that most Sub-Saharan African countries are multi-ethnic. The largest language group rarely makes up more than 50% of the population. Many people forget this when discussing Africa, so I just wanted to highlight that diversity must factor into this.
Worth-Jicama3936 on
Don’t most African countries have like 20 different languages they could consider their mother tongue? They are as diverse as India in that regard so how do they decide on one?
upthetruth1 on
Well, English is the fastest growing first language in Nigeria
Arrow_of_Timelines on
If the students aren’t struggling with English to the hinderance of other subjects, I would think being taught in it would give them a big advantage.
Though I think Ghana’s system makes sense here, but I think teaching in native at early years only helps children if their parents also teach and expose them to writing at home
Golda_M on
I testing topic. Lots of angles. Would be interesting to hear from west African neoliberals’ opinions.
Im Israeli. We have both hebrew and arabic education systems. Both also divided by religious affiliations.
On one hand, this keeps everyone happy and minimizes imposition of values between tribes. Otoh… they deepen cultural chasms.
The background here is entrenched multiculturalism. Ottoman society was multicultural. Sects had autonomy. Intermarriage has rare and discouraged. In Arab culture, even marriage outside of one’s clan is relatively uncommon.
Groups were fairly insular. Jews also had a history of living in insular communities. Ultra orthodox are extremly insular to their own micro-sects.
Language is the ultimate cultural barrier, and going with mother tongue education segregated education by default.
5 Comments
There is an interesting policy debate going on in two major West African countries right now around mother tongue education.
Nigeria has just ended a brief experiment with mother tongue education, and reverted to English only. There was a BBC article about it here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd7rlrzq88wo
Meanwhile, Ghana has just started rolling out their mother tongue education program for the early years of schooling.
The question at hand is whether schooling in English (or other languages of European origin) is a disadvantage compared to schooling in one’s African-origin mother tongue.
This has implications for most African countries.
The article explores the debate and the differences in Ghana’s implementation and Nigeria’s.
And yes, it is ironic that there is an English error in the title.
I’m interested to hear this sub’s opinions, and especially that of European and Asian users.
One thing to remember is that most Sub-Saharan African countries are multi-ethnic. The largest language group rarely makes up more than 50% of the population. Many people forget this when discussing Africa, so I just wanted to highlight that diversity must factor into this.
Don’t most African countries have like 20 different languages they could consider their mother tongue? They are as diverse as India in that regard so how do they decide on one?
Well, English is the fastest growing first language in Nigeria
If the students aren’t struggling with English to the hinderance of other subjects, I would think being taught in it would give them a big advantage.
Though I think Ghana’s system makes sense here, but I think teaching in native at early years only helps children if their parents also teach and expose them to writing at home
I testing topic. Lots of angles. Would be interesting to hear from west African neoliberals’ opinions.
Im Israeli. We have both hebrew and arabic education systems. Both also divided by religious affiliations.
On one hand, this keeps everyone happy and minimizes imposition of values between tribes. Otoh… they deepen cultural chasms.
The background here is entrenched multiculturalism. Ottoman society was multicultural. Sects had autonomy. Intermarriage has rare and discouraged. In Arab culture, even marriage outside of one’s clan is relatively uncommon.
Groups were fairly insular. Jews also had a history of living in insular communities. Ultra orthodox are extremly insular to their own micro-sects.
Language is the ultimate cultural barrier, and going with mother tongue education segregated education by default.