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Maciej Nowakowski, The Pontifical University of Pope John Paul II, PolandAbstract
This article concerns the modern challenges regarding the establishment of bilingual educational models among minority language communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite estimates that post-colonial Africa contains approximately 3,000 native languages, the majority of mainstream education in the region remains almost exclusively conducted in post-colonial European languages. The article thus examines and discusses four experimental minority bilingual programmes in Africa (Niger, Ghana, Cameroon, and Senegal), evaluating quantitative test results and qualitative student-pupil interaction based on four key metrics in the theoretical discussion regarding bilingual education: (i) pedagogical improvement, (ii) motivational improvement, (iii) language planning challenges, and (iv) linguistic density challenges. The eight language communities under direct analysis (Zarma, Ga, Bulu, Pulaar, Wolof, Kobiana, Wamey, and Bainouk, respectively) encompass a diverse array of groups in terms of demographic size and educational resources, to evaluate both the universal and subjective educational needs of various minority contexts. The significance of the study thus stems from its direct comparative approach and its comprehensive update of existing academic literature, assessing both the pros and cons of bilingual education in Africa, both past and present. The results showed that programmes with the highest test scores and learning motivations had extensive planning involving grassroots community interaction before implementation. Conversely, programmes implemented exclusively via top-down government initiatives produced substantially lower test scores and less favourable attitudes from students and parents alike. The article thus calls for a synthesis of bottom-up grassroots movements with top-down investment and policy initiatives to enhance and develop bilingual education services in minority languages.
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Conference: PCE2025Stream: Challenging & Preserving: Culture
This paper is part of the PCE2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Nowakowski M. (2025) Towards a Policy for Bilingual Education Among Minority Language Communities in Africa: A Discussion of Pedagogical Advantages and Political Challenges ISSN: 2758-0962 The Paris Conference on Education 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 875-892) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2758-0962.2025.68
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2758-0962.2025.68
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