UNESCO | Education - Language of instruction policy and practice in Africa

Language of instruction policy and practice in Africa

More than 2,000 languages are spoken today in Africa. However the languages of the former colonial powers - English, French, Spanish and Portuguese � still dominate.

The negative attitudes that impede the use of African languages for teaching and learning are shown to be unwarranted, particularly when it is demonstrated in practice that many African countries are either already using or planning to use them by embarking on experiments and pilot projects. One of the problems often decried in language educational policy is the lack of information on what is going on in different countries.

The most important factor in the origins of language educational policies in Africa
is the legacy of colonial language policies. In general, there is a correlation between use of African languages as media of instruction and colonial language policies that permit or encourage the teaching of African languages. For a multilingual approach to work, governments must see linguistic diversity as a boon and not a problem to be dealt with.

The Mali-based African Languages Academy was founded in 2001 to encourage use of the continent�s languages.