Rural Basic Education for All: the Impact of the Language of Instruction on the Quality

Abstract

The paper discusses the issues related to the use of English as Language of Instructions (henceforth LoI) in rural Twelve-Year Basic Education (henceforth 12YBE) in Rwanda: Quality questions in education through English as LoI. The use of English emerged as a political and educational solution at improving the quality of education to meet the labour market demand, is heading for a competition in which English is perceived as the language of the world and new technology. However, there is an uncertainty related to the contribution of poor skills in English to the quality of education. The majority of 12 YBE students have little or no exposure to English. They barely understand the LoI and their teachers also have weak knowledge in LoI. The low standard of LoI is implicated in low quality and examination disadvantages. What can we do to effectively make English the LoI? This research gives the Ministry of Education an overview of the standard of English used as LoI in 12 YBE, and how it affects the quality . This research is a qualitative study that used the micro-approach to explore the quality in some selected 12YBE rural schools. Public and private schools are concerned. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 30 rural schools for classroom observation and interviews. The results show that, at the end of Ordinary Level and Advanced Level of 12YBE, students’ skills in English required to perform their content subjects are questioned and create some descent in their participation in learning.



Author Information
Patrice Ntawigira, University of Rwanda, Rwanda

Paper Information
Conference: ECLL2014
Stream: Innovative language teaching and learning methodologies

This paper is part of the ECLL2014 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon