Use of African Languages and Multilingual Education

UIL has mainstreamed the promotion of mother-tongue-based multilingual education within its major programmes (CONFINTEA, LIFE and Priority Region Africa) as an important principle for Education for All and lifelong learning.
Since the colonial period, education systems in many African countries have tended to sideline national languages, focusing instead on official languages that remain foreign to the majority of the population. As a result, these education systems have failed to stimulate individual and societal development in African languages.
Research on language in education in Africa has shown that at least 6 to 8 years of mother-tongue-based multilingual education is needed to increase learning achievements. Hence, UIL advocates for education systems in Africa that are mother-tongue-based and aim to create learners who are highly proficient in local, national and international languages. The “mother tongue” is understood as the language or one of the languages used in the learner’s immediate environment and daily interactions. It is also the language that “nurtures” a child during his or her first four years of life and whose grammar he/she has learned before starting school, and which an adult has mastered and is able to use in his/her everyday life and interactions.