Mother Tongue Education and Transitional Literacy in Sierra Leone: Prospects and Challenges in the 21st Century

Abstract

There is renewed interest in mother tongue education (MTE) in many former African colonies. The new drive is informed by Unesco's model of mother tongue literacy (Unesco 1953) that has been critically re-examined by Tabouret-Keller et al. (1997). In Sierra Leone, the 1991 National Constitution and the New Education Policy emphasise basic education and the teaching of Sierra Leonean languages, both as media of instruction during the first three years of primary schooling and as subjects of study from Junior Secondary School (JSS) upwards. A critical appraisal of the prescriptions of the New Education Policy and other government pronouncements on the use of mother tongues in formal and non-formal education draws attention to important setbacks, including sociolinguistic, economic, educational and political factors in Sierra Leone of the 21st century. Other important questions include, what the actual literacy needs of 'illiterate' Sierra Leoneans are, and whether it is feasible to rejuvenate interest in MTE in a country where the meaning of literacy and good education are equated only to English literacy. The new policy has therefore sparked off the ageing debate on the language question for education, particularly among language educators. This article is a part of that debate and the wider debate on the appropriate language for literacy in sub-Saharan Africa.