40 don't access education in a language they understand: UNESCO

PARIS 21st February 2016 (WAM) - A new paper by UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) reports that 40% of the global population does not access education in a language they understand. The policy paper 'If you don't understand how can you learn?' released for International Mother Language Day (21st February) argues that being taught in a language other than their own can negatively impact children's learning especially for those living in poverty.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova underlined the basic principle of children learning in a language they speak. "With a new global education agenda that prioritises quality equity and lifelong learning for all it is essential to encourage full respect for the use of mother language in teaching and learning and to promote linguistic diversity. Inclusive language education policies will not only lead to higher learning achievement but contribute to tolerance social cohesion and ultimately peace."

Learning improves in countries that have invested in bilingual programmes. In Guatemala students in bilingual schools have lower repetition and dropout rates. They also have higher scores in all subject areas. Children in Ethiopia who participated in bilingual programmes for eight years improved their learning in subjects across the curriculum.

The UNESCO GEM Report's World Inequality Database on Education WIDE shows the breakdowns for learning in countries depending on the language of assessment. For example in Cote d'Ivoire 55% of grade 5 students who speak the test language at home learned the basics in reading in 2008 compared with 25% of those who speak another language. In the Islamic Republic of Iran 80% of grade 4 students who did not speak Farsi at home reached the basics in reading compared with over 95% of Farsi speakers. In Honduras in 2011 94% of grade 6 students who spoke the language of instruction at home learned the basics in reading compared to 62% of those who did not. In Turkey in 2012 around 50% of poor non-Turkish speaking 15 year olds achieved minimum benchmarks in reading against the national average of 80%. In multi-ethnic societies including Turkey Nepal Pakistan Bangladesh and Guatemala the paper shows that imposing a dominant language through a school system - while sometimes a choice of necessity - has frequently been a source of grievance linked to wider issues of social and cultural inequality.

Aaron Benavot Director of UNESCO's GEM Report says that language can serve as a double-edged sword. "While it strengthens an ethnic group's social ties and sense of belonging it can also become a basis for their marginalisation. Education policy must ensure that all learners including minority language speakers access school in a language they know."

The paper has key recommendations to ensure that children are taught in a language they understand namely that at least six years of mother tongue instruction is needed so that gains from teaching in mother tongue in the early years are sustained education policies should recognise the importance of mother tongue learning as a review of 40 countries' education plans finds that only less than half of them recognise the importance of teaching children in their home language particularly in early grades and teachers need to be trained to teach in two languages and to understand the needs of second-language learners. Teachers are rarely prepared for the reality of bilingual classrooms. In Senegal only 8% and in Mali only 2% of trained teachers expressed confidence about teaching in local languages.