Botswana: Mother Tongue in Education

Posted by sociolingo on February 5, 2008

Source: AllAfrica.com via Terry Howcott

Mother Tongue in Education

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
OPINION
3 July 2007
Posted to the web 4 July 2007

By Dorcas Moefhe, Owen Pansiri and Sheldon Weeks
Gaborone
It is now a known and accepted fact that the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in early days of schooling contributes to improved classroom learning and related academic achievement.

Children who learn to read and write on their first language or mother tongue then transfer those skills to other languages such as Setswana and English. What is more problematic is how to start with mother tongue education in a multilingual society such as Botswana. Collaboration between governments and non-governmental organisations in educational development is one major strategy that the World Conferences on Education of 1990 and 2000 endorsed.

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Botswana has used this strategy to deal with, among others, the education of remote area dwellers. The government has also embraced the Minority Education Project with a specific focus on the education of the San, but the project does not seem to be coming out clearly between the Ministry of Education and the other interested parties. The University of Botswana and the University of Tromso (UB/UT) are currently working together on research and capacity building for the Basarwa whom they refer to as the San.

Through this initiative, various research activities and consultancies have been conducted to explore the educational needs of the San. This project has extended collaboration beyond academia.

It has drawn in stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, UNESCO and other partners such as Letloa Trust Board of Trustees of the Kuru Family of Organisations and the business communities, especially De Beers and Debswana and other regional and far-flung organisations that have shown an interest in inclusive education and the education of children in marginalised communities. Informed by research and consultancies, all those who are involved in the Minority Education Project have understood the wider historical context of the San as an educationally marginalised segment of the Botswana society.

The project engaged with the idea of trying to achieve inclusive education so that the San children have equal and easier opportunity to participate in the cycle of 10 years of basic education as envisaged by the Revised National Policy on Education of 1994. Through a series of consultations, the issue of Mother Tongue Pilot Schools emerged and the Letloa Trust took it further for support with various interested parties, particularly De Beers and Debswana and then the Ministry of Education.

Along the way it appeared that the Minority Education Project was not clearly conceptualised by the parties involved, that is, the Ministry of Education and De Beers and Debswana.

Some people were neither comfortable with the term “minority education project” nor its focus on a specific ethnic group. To make the project friendlier to all stakeholders, efforts were made to redefine its objectives and refocus, hence the emergence of the “Support Programme for Education in Remote Areas” (SPERA).

SPERA was inclusive of other groups living in remote areas, but maintained its focus on the educational needs of the San. While these agencies were willing to support the project, some issues such as focus, management capacity and sustainability were raised by the government, which seemed to want a project that was not for a specific or particular ethnic group.

In the long run, after a number of years of planning, formulation of documents and other activities, the proposed SPERA pilot project has not taken off. The Support Programme for Education in Remote Areas needs to be pursued further as a pilot project on inclusive education.

This would be a step towards the implementation of the policy recommendation on teaching through children’s first language or mother tongue that has been pending since 1994.

The project should be viewed as an opportunity on which the education sector and its partners can inform themselves on the best practices in developing mother-tongue language education programmes for the various non-Setswana speakers in Botswana. The already existing partnership between the University of Botswana and the University of Tromso, the Ministry of Education, Debswana, Letloa Board of Trustees and other interested agencies such as UNESCO, provides a positive climate upon which the SPERA project cannot be allowed to fail, provided all is done to ‘educationalise’, but not to ‘politicise’ the project.

Namibia: Mother Tongue Project Distributes Thousands of Books

Posted by sociolingo on February 5, 2008

Source: New Era via Terry Howcott

Mother Tongue Project Distributes Thousands of Books
By Wezi Tjaronda
WINDHOEK

Some 750 000 teaching and learning textbooks from Grades 1 to 3 have been distributed to schools since the start of the Basic Education Programme (BEP) Upgrading African Languages Project (Afrila) in October 2000, which has improved the textbook learner ratio.

The project aimed at improving literacy and numeracy in learners in the mother tongue and also to promote the acquisition of English as a second language before English becomes the medium of instruction from Grade 4 onwards.

It is believed that the language spoken at home by a learner is an important prerequisite to success in learning. The project has developed new teaching and learning materials in six target languages, namely, Kukwangali, Rumanyo, Thimbukushu, Otjiherero, Silozi and Khoekhoegowab, but also in Oshindonga and Oshikwanyama for grades 1 to 3.

Last month, the Afrila project launched literacy, mathematics and environmental studies textbooks for grades 1 to 3 in six target languages. The textbooks are based on the revised lower primary curriculum and the new subject syllabus, to contribute to the strengthening of mother tongue education in the foundation phase.

Launching the books, Undersecretary for Formal Education in the Ministry of Education, Alfred Ilukena, said language was the most important tool for thinking, a means of communication and one of the most important aspects of identity.

“A high level of communication in one’s language is a prerequisite in a knowledge-based society,” he said.
Ilukena said learners also learnt best through their mother tongues in the formative years of schooling and would master English if they have mastered their mother tongue first.

“The purpose of the lower primary phase is to lay a foundation for learning throughout the formal education system. If the foundation which is laid in these four years is good, the learners will be well prepared to continue learning,” he said, adding that this would also enable children to develop self-confidence and self-worth through personal and social development during this phase.

The Afrila project coordinator, Andreas Schott, who also bade farewell since the project has come to an end, said the project supported the ministry and NIED to implement the Language Policy for Schools to improve the quality of mother tongue education in the lower primary phase.

The project has made available over 350 publications.

“This in itself should alone increase the effectiveness of teaching in the lower primary classroom combined with a learner-centred pedagogy in which the textbooks are the basis as the guiding pedagogical paradigm,” said Schott.
However, he recommended that an impact study be conducted to determine how the materials have improved the performance of the learners and also that the ministry should incorporate necessary activities for mother tongue education in the lower primary phase into ETSIP planning through a second language policy and a feasible textbook policy.

The project was financed by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

Book: Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Published: 2007,  Springer  http://www.springer.com

 <http://www.springer.com/> 
Editor: Nancy H. Hornberger


Abstract:


*The Encyclopedia is a necessary reference set for every university

 and college library in the world that serves a faculty or school of

 education.


*The Encyclopedia has more than 250 contributors drawn from numerous

countries. Its reviews present information and authoritative insights

 that are relevant to every country and to every language.


*Each volume contains about 20-30 reviews. For some topics, teams of

contributors have worked to produce a single review.


*Each state-of-the-art review has about 4000 words of text and

 follows a similar structure.


*Most contributors give coverage of early developments in their

 topic, major contributions, work in progress, problems and difficulties, and

future directions


*The aim of the reviews is to give readers access to the

 international literature and research on each topic.


*The text of each review is followed by a reference list containing

 about 30 key references mentioned in the text.


This Encyclopedia is a necessary reference set for every university

 and college library in the world that serves a faculty or school of

 education.



The Encyclopedia aims to speak to a prospective readership that is

multinational, and to do so as unambiguously as possible. Because

 each book-size volume deals with a discrete and important subject in

 language and education, these state-of-the-art volumes also offer highly

authoritative course textbooks in the areas suggested by their titles.


The more than 250 scholars contributing to the Encyclopedia hail from

 all continents of our globe and from 41 countries; they represent a great

diversity of linguistic, cultural, and disciplinary traditions. For all

that, what is most impressive about the contributions gathered here is the

unity of purpose and outlook they express with regard to the central

 role of language as both vehicle and mediator of educational processes and

 to the need for continued and deepening research into the limits and

possibilities that implies.


http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-168.html

2008, International Year of Languages - Languages matter!

Posted by sociolingo on January 4, 2008

Source: UNESCO

2008, International Year of Languages

Languages matter !

On 16 May 2007, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2008 to be the International Year of Languages. As language issues are central to UNESCO’s mandate in education, science, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information, the Organization has been named the lead agency for this event.

To celebrate the International Year of Languages, UNESCO invites governments, United Nations organizations, civil society organizations, educational institutions, professional associations and all other stakeholders to increase their own activities to promote and protect all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts.

To facilitate partnership and monitoring, a communication tools kit is available, as well as a list of possible action fields and a list of the projects currently undertaken in the framework of the International Year of Languages. To submit your project to the list, please fill in the project outline form.

Nigeria: Teaching in mother tongue

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4260&Itemid=0
Written by Adekunle Aliyu

Thursday, 10 January 2008

The National Policy on Education (NPE) affirmed that Government
recognises the importance of language as means of promoting social
interaction, national cohesion and preserving our cultures. This
policy endorsed the need for every child to learn the language of the
immediate environment. Furthermore, in the interest of national
unity, it is expedient that every child shall be required to learn
one of the three major Nigerian languages - Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Ever
since, not so much impetus was given to the policy which requires
Nigerian children to learn one of those three languages. It is not
surprising that many children and even adults can not speak any of
the
indigeneous languages including their mother tongue.

When children can not speak their native language in the first place,
how then can they learn and study in school with the mother tongue?
The challenge of teaching in mother tongue may remain unattainable
unless Nigeria’s education system is decolonised with English
language
de-emphasised gradually and systematically. But English is still the
official language of this country – a colonial heritage that may not
perish. In a society of language multiplicity, it would be difficult
to build a consensus for an all-embracing national language. Apart
from the three main languages of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, there are
over 300 linguistic dialects and mother tongues.

Ethnic loyalty and nationality won’t give way for adoption of any of
these languages as the national tongue or lingua franca. Regarded as
the exponent and father of mother tongue initiative, Professor
Babatunde Aliyu Fafunwa, a former Minister of Education attributed
the
continued retention of English as our official language to colonial
mentality.

He stated:

“Teaching can be done in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Nupe, Itsekiri, I
pioneered it in science at Nsukka. I got the proceedings of a
conference translated into Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. I believe everyone
can learn in their own native language.” Revealing an experiment he
made to know the acceptability of mother tongue for teaching, the
renowned educationist said pupils preferred to learn in their own
language instead of English, as they can express themselves better in
their mother tongue. Children should be given early education in
mother tongue, because investigation has shown that it will last long
er in their cognitive domain than any alien tongue.

The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) after assessing the use of the child’s native language in
teaching and found it successful, recommended the approach. Children
will excel more when taught in local language. Fafunwa believes
science and mathematics can be taught in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa or any
other indigenous language. He has published books on science and
mathematics in Yoruba for primary education which have been
translated
into Igbo, Nupe, etc. Fafunwa faulted those who argued that Yoruba or
other native languages have no numerals, nor scientific terms, words
of formula.

“English used Arabic numerals. If English can borrow, we also can
borrow. There are a number of ways to treat a language: borrow,
convert, invent, add.” All great, highly developed countries in the
world speak their own languages, including the newly emerging
economic
and industrial powers of South East Asia, even though they were
colonised by Britain. The time has come for Nigeria to shrug off
Colonial mentality by discarding English and develop a national
indigenous language out of the motley of native tongues in the
country. This may not be easy due to our cultural, ethnic and
linguistic diversity. But the nation can start thinking about it,
especially in using mother tongue to teach pupils in primary
education. The Lagos State Hoiuse of Assembly is setting the pace by
adopting Yoruba as official language in conducting proceedings.

The Language Question in Cameroon

Source:Linguistik online 18, 1/04

The Language Question in Cameroon

George Echu (Yaounde/Bloomington)

Abstract

In multilingual Cameroon, 247 indigenous languages live side by side with English and French (the two official languages) and Cameroon Pidgin English (the main lingua franca). While the two official languages of colonial heritage dominate public life in the areas of education, administration, politics, mass media, publicity and literature, both the indigenous languages and Cameroon Pidgin English are relegated to the background.

This paper is a critique of language policy in Cameroon revealing that mother tongue education in the early years of primary education remains a distant cry, as the possible introduction of an indigenous language in the school system is not only considered unwanted by educational authorities but equally combated against by parents who believe that the future of their children lies in the mastery of the official languages. This persistent disregard of indigenous languages does not only alienate the Cameroonian child culturally, but further alienates the vast majority of Cameroonians who are illiterate (in English and French) since important State business is carried out in the official languages. As regards the implementation of the policy of official language bilingualism, there is clear imbalance in the use of the two official languages as French continues to be the dominant official language while English is relegated to a second place within the State. The frustration that ensues within the Anglophone community has led in recent years to the birth of Anglophone nationalism, a situation that seems to be widening the rift between the two main components of the society (Anglophones and Francophones), thereby compromising national unity.

The paper is divided into five major parts. After a brief presentation of the country, the author dwells on multilingualism and language policy since the colonial period. The third, fourth and last parts of the paper focus on the critique of language policy in Cameroon with emphasis first on the policy of official language bilingualism and bilingual education, then on the place of indigenous languages, and finally on the national language debate.

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full text

Cameroon: Orthography and Identity

Posted by sociolingo on January 2, 2008

Source: Cogprints

Orthography and Identity in Cameroon

Bird, Steven (2001) Orthography and Identity in Cameroon. [Journal (Paginated)] (In Press)

Full text available as:

Preview	PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader 168Kb
Preview	Postscript - Requires a viewer, such as GSview 1145Kb

Abstract

The tone languages of sub-Saharan Africa raise challenging questions for the design of new writing systems. Marking too much or too little tone can have grave consequences for the usability of an orthography. Orthography development, past and present, rests on a raft of sociolinguistic issues having little to do with the technical phonological concerns that usually preoccupy orthographers. Some of these issues are familiar from the spelling reforms which have taken place in European languages. However, many of the issues faced in sub-Saharan Africa are different, being concerned with the creation of new writing systems in a multi-ethnic context: residual colonial influences, the construction of new nation-states, detribalization versus culture preservation and language reclamation, and so on. Language development projects which crucially rely on creating or revising orthographies may founder if they do not attend to the various layers of identity that are indexed by orthography: whether colonial, national, ethnic, local or individual identity. In this study, I review the history and politics of orthography in Cameroon, with a focus on tone marking. The paper concludes by calling present-day orthographers to a deeper and broader understanding of orthographic issues.

Nigeria: Communication and human development

Source: The Tide News

Communication and human development
• Sunday, Dec 23, 2007

Educationally, the quest for mass literacy even to the grassroots in the 21st century as propagated by the National Education Policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria for a total emancipation of human development from the shackles of ignorance, social injustice and psychological effect of illiteracy for a virile society cannot be over emphasised. The point here is how this dream would be achieved appropriately. At this juncture, the electronic medium would enhance the spread of the programme for effective language communication.

In the human society, language communication plays a vital role for human development. Close observation has indicated that in the African context since the advent of civilization from the Northern region, lots of human development has been affected on language communication.
The period of primitivity and uncivilisation has become a thing of the past. However, in tern areas, the issue of adequate language communication is not dawn despite several medium of communication machineries in the form of science and technology.

Language communication is being periscoped in different dimensions by philosophers. Simply put language is Power. It is a medium of passing relevant information and knowledge required of the people. In a scholarly assertion, Professor A. S. Hornby and his cohorts had mirrored language as “human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, feelings and desires by means of a system of sounds and sound symbols.” Language was further described as a form used by a group, as well as manner of using words.

Taking a look into yesteryears during the era of the old Rivers State dispensation, there were four local languages that were prominently featured in news casting and utilization of other programmes earmarked to reach and educate rural dwellers on certain norms and policies of both ethnic nationalities and government at various facets.

These ethnic languages include: Ikwerre, Kalabari, Khana and Kolokuma respectively. Overtime, the issue of decentralization policy was given top priority and some other ethnic languages were considered and incorporated in the service of the Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation (RSBC), which include the following: Ndoni, Ogba, Engenni, Ekpeye, Abua, Andoni, Ogbia, Epie, Itari and others.

Without hesitation, the languages took off precisely with two programmes each, according to the directive on REQUEST, where greetings were sent across to relations and well wishers on CHIT -CHAT, as the Artiste - the Coordinator enlightens and educates his kinsmen on cultural and traditional ethics and other information relevant to the people. Pertinently, these programmes shortlived for only three months - April to June 1981 and was proscribed unceremoniously with a lame assumption that it might over load the singled AM Radio Station in operation then.

In view of socio-economic and human development, the Rivers State Government conceived a vision of establishing additional electronic industry, hence the birth of the Frequency Modulation (FM) Radio Station in 1986.

In the same vein, the television unit of the electronic media was also enhanced from channel 10 to channel 22 as bonafide properties of the State. Of course, these were developmental steps taken in the right direction to address the issue of reaching out to the rural areas with necessary communication in news casting and other related programme requirements.

Furthermore and precisely, October 1, 1996 the Ijaw speaking ethnic nationalities were carved out of the former Rivers State as autonomous sovereign State known as Bayelsa by the military administration of late General Sani Abacha. Invariably, the creation of Bayelsa State has actually lifted some socio-economic and political burdens off the neck of Rivers people and of course, a sigh of relief was heaved.

Retrospectively, it behoves one to posit: what has been the outcome of these social developments for the past 20 years of a ’sovereign State?
There is a biblical outcry that states “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” as propounded in the book of Prophet Hosea 4 v 6 first part. It does not necessarily mean that one has to attend a educational institution before certain things could be learnt.
Therefore, it is imperative that the entire citizenry need to be reached either academically and or traditionally to balance the equation of eradicating illiteracy and ignorance in the society with particular reference to the rural dwellers. Without mincing words, ignorance is a chronic ailment which could be cured only with adequate and appropriate enlightenment, entertainment and positive educational communication programmes through the electronic media.

For instance, there are indiscriminate deaths which are not natural in several ethnic groups in the world due to lack of knowledge as people bent on invocation and enchantment of evil spirits and consultation with devilish shrines at odd times.

Realistically, when the local languages are re-introduced into Radio programmes, certain norms and ethics would be corrected and the people would realize the value of self, fellow human beings and readdress the fetish characteristics that have beclouded the mind and relationship and communication shall be cordial.

In a television programme on Channel 6 of Friday, 27th November 1981 at 9.30p.m., the importance of language communication was lauded by Hon. Gabriel Okara thus: “Language is a part of culture because it transcends from one to another.” Similarly, in the Nigerian Star No.22387, during the 15th West African Languages Congress held at the University of Port Harcourt on 4th to 10th April, 1982, Professor Kay Williamson commented that “Our languages are important.”

Nevertheless, the two Radio stations owned by the Rivers State Government are more than enough to adequately accommodate the languages for local programmes in order to reach the rural dwellers.
In as much as the Broadcasting Corporation is going international in the electronic industry, it should not loose sight of educating and enlightening its people at the grassroots.

With all pleasure, Rivers State is socially and economically identified as the treasure base of the nation whereas a good percentage of the citizenry are kept in the darkness of ignorance and it has become arduous to express some pressing socio-economic problems as mineral producing areas.

Herein the rural communities should be acquainted and fully connected with Government decentralisation policies to enhance the living standards of the rural society. The denial of these policies is in deed, a developmental setback in a democratic system of administration in our modem dispensation. The broadcasting industry is not supposed to be engulfed with the Western activities.

Without hesitation, an example could be lent from the Ibo speaking areas where the citizens are always kept abreast of government’s programmes through the use of local languages for better understanding the local ethics to enhance the Western ethics alike. These programmes are intertwined and not to be lope sided.

Frankly, common customary exhibitions are eluding the people with greater concern to the younger generation as a result of the decline from the natural behaviours and enlightenment by the custodians. For instance, a greeting in some local dialects is becoming burdensome to the average sons and daughters of the modem age. The imperativeness of incorporating the local languages to return the people to the status quo cannot be over stressed.

Ominyanwa, a public affairs analyst resides in Port Harcourt.

http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=12/23/2007&qrTitle=Communication%20and%20human%20development&qrColumn=OPINION

Academic paper: Standardization of national languages

 The following UNESCO paper (pdf doc) has several African papers which may be of interest. You will need Adobe Reader to access it. (Download it here.)

STANDARDIZATION OF NATIONAL
LANGUAGES
SYMPOSIUM
ON LANGUAGE STANDARDIZATION
2-3 February 1991
edited by
Utta von Gleich and Ekkehard Wolff

More 

ACALAN: multilingual education in Africa

Source: UNESCO COURIER 2007 no10

For multilingual education in Africa

© UNESCO/Antonio Fiorente
Multilingual education based on the mother language must be developped.

Education should enable people to take root in their culture as well as open them up to other cultures. Africa needs schooling that integrates its languages, history and social values, according to Adama Samassekou, president of the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN).

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If education were a consumer product, we would make it fairer by distributing it equitably among all the peoples of the world, so that no one would be lacking. But if education is a process of conditioning, with the aim of shaping children’s personalities so that as adults they can find their place in the society in which they live, then the educational project is linked to a societal project.

In that case, would it be fairer for everybody to practice the same education, at the risk of falling into global cultural leveling? Isn’t the diversity of educational methods the best guarantee of the cultural diversity we are so fiercely safeguarding these days? From this standpoint, to increase fairness in education, don’t we have to make sure that all the world’s peoples have the means to create their own educational systems? And shouldn’t we think about taking concerted action to make education fairer, by making access to educational means more equitable?

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Universal knowledge and endogenous knowledge

The need to preserve each people’s identity and singularity doesn’t exclude the need for communication and exchange with the rest of the world. If, in every corner of the globe, we succeed in blending harmoniously a certain quantity of universal knowledge and a certain quantity of endogenous knowledge, this education enables humans to take root in their local cultures and also to become part of an international culture.

Maybe it’s a dream, but it would be good to remember the greatest projects of humanity were, for a long time, dreams. Let us recall the wise words of Brazilian Don Helder Camara: When you dream alone, it’s just a dream; but when several people have the same dream, it’s already the beginning of reality.

In my part of the world, Africa, the situation is sadly only too well-known. Who has described it better than the author of “Educate or Perish”, the late Professor Ki-Zerbo (Burkina Faso), with his highlighting of what prevails on our continent: a culturally integrating education, which for decades has not respected the right of millions of pupils to have an identity; education that impoverishes, too, because it is disconnected from production; and finally a socially violent education, because it fosters the social exclusion of the less-privileged, who are handicapped by the preceding anomalies.

We need a school that is attached to society, not torn from it. A school that would give real actors back to society, and not victims of the cognitive violence represented by the repression of the mother language.

I am convinced that if we want to achieve education that is fairer in Africa, we must develop a multilingual education based on the mother language, an education in the African languages of the learner, in partnership with the European and international languages serving today as official languages in the greater majority of African states; an education that builds bridges between early schooling in the formal sector and literacy training for those who are past the age of starting school.

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Education and culture are indivisible

Most African countries continue to endure an unacceptable situation: as soon as they start school, children start learning in a language they don’t speak at home. Introducing African languages in the African school systems – as a vector of learning and as a subject of study – is one of the goals of the African Academy of Languages, which I head. We decided to undertake a genuine rehabilitation process for education at continent level, by reestablishing the link between education and culture and by including our languages and our history in school curricula. It’s what I call the reestablishment of the African educational system, characterized by three essential principles, like the three stones of the African hearth: rebuilding cultural identity of the learner by taking as a base the simultaneous use of the mother language and the official language; linking school to life, by restructuring curricula and promoting professional training, entrepreneurship and active educational methods; and promoting a dynamic of partnership around and for the benefit of the school, allowing the entire educational community to contribute to a school project in which participants can recognize themselves.

Taking African languages into account as working languages in all domains of public life must start at school, the best place for building know-how and developing knowledge, before it takes its place in other social spheres. Africa is the only continent in the world where, in most countries, the person on trial doesn’t have access to justice in his or her mother language, and still has to rely on an interpretation system inherited from the colonial period. Let us remember the indignation of Mahatma Gandhi, who as a lawyer in court was obliged to express himself in English while an interpreter translated his words into his own mother language. “Isn’t this ridiculous,” he would say. “Isn’t it a sign of slavery? Must I blame the English or myself?”

Africa has decided to change the situation by creating the African Academy of Languages. It’s a continental structure concerned with all language issues, which makes it unique in the world. It aims to set up a real partnership in Africa between what I would call “Africanophony” – the condition of speaking one or several African languages – and other linguistic spheres: English-speaking, French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking etc, with a view to intercultural civic education. In this way, the African Academy of Languages represents one of the major catalysts for the ongoing African cultural Renaissance.

This article is taken from Adama Samassekou’s talk at the session of “21st Century Dialogues” held at UNESCO on 13 September 2007 on the topic “How to make education fairer?”

Adama Samassekou, President of the African Academy of Languages, former Minister of Education of Mali (1993-2000)