Mother tongue and education in Africa: Publicising the reality

Angelina N Kioko,Martin C Njoroge,Ruth W Ndung’U,Jayne Mutiga

doi:10.1186/s13616-014-0018-x

Angelina N Kioko, Martin C Njoroge + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13616-014-0018-x

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Abstract

Varied realities surround the use of mother tongue education in Africa. These realities are entrenched in the attitudes and misconceptions that have gone unchallenged due to inadequate literature on the successful use of mother tongues in the classroom and beyond. The realities discussed in this paper include the frustrations of children introduced to education in a foreign language; misconceptions about the success of mother tongue education; educational benefits of mother tongue education; and mother tongues and enhanced economic opportunities. The foci of this paper are the success stories from Africa and the economic benefits in the use of the mother tongue in creative media or economies. These success stories are a way of getting to stakeholders to invest in mother tongue education for there are returns on such investment. The stories are also a way of challenging scholars to get out of the conference rooms and do something gainful with the mother tongues.

Highlights

Since the UNESCO land mark publication in 1953, which underscored the importance of educating children in their mother tongue, books and scholarly papers have been written on the educational significance of the choice of the language of instruction
A lot of this information does not seem to be reaching the people whose nod is essential for meaningful changes to take place, and perhaps when it does get to the public domain it is not packaged in the form that would communicate to this group of people
The three key issues emerging from these creative sectors are that they have a potential for job and wealth creation; that they are based on the knowledge and use of a mother tongue in a multilingual setting; and that they are not hindered by restrictive language policies since they occur in contexts that are not under such controls

Summary

Introduction

Since the UNESCO land mark publication in 1953, which underscored the importance of educating children in their mother tongue, books and scholarly papers have been written on the educational significance of the choice of the language of instruction. There is plenty of information on why children should start education in their mother tongue. Another common misconception is that the use of the home language in school hampers learning because mother tongues are not capable of communicating the complex meanings that are part of formal education.

Results

Conclusion