Bilingual Education in West Africa: Does It Work?

Abstract

This paper focuses on experimental bilingual programmes in Guinea-Bissau and Niger, West Africa. Both countries introduced transitional bilingual programmes in pilot schools and compared test results and teacher–pupil interaction between bilingual and monolingual (ex-colonial language) schools. Test results in Niger demonstrated that pupils who started in their mother tongues could read and write better even in the second language. Observations in both countries indicated that bilingual classrooms were more stimulating, interactive, and relaxed. Those who gained the most from participating in bilingual programmes in both countries were rural children and girls. The majority of parents surveyed were in favor of early schooling in the mother tongue and wished to see national languages used in other public contexts. Despite such positive results, the political will for bilingual reforms is still missing in both countries.