Danida’s policy and practice in relation to

mother tongue and bilingual education

Stephen Carney & Marianne Schulz

UNESCO World Education Forum (2000)Dakar Framework for Action

1. Early childhood care and education

2. Free primary education for all

3. Learning and life-skills for young people and adults

4. 50% improvement in adult literacy by 2015; access to basic and continuing education

5. Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary by 2005; full equality by 2015

6. Improved quality of education especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills

UN Millennium Summit (2000)Millennium Development Goals

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Danish Development Policy

• Poverty reduction at the core:– Social and economic development– Human rights, democratisation and good

governance– Stability, security and the fight against terrorism– Refugees, humanitarian assistance and regions of

origin– Environment

Education Sector Policies 2001

• Access

• Equity

• Quality

• Governance

• Cultural identity, language & values

• Mother tongue, ‘early exit’ or ‘laissez faire’?

New Development Context

• New aid modalities (basket-funding)

• Sectoral-level approach

• Decentralised support

Support for Indigenous Peoples

• ‘Self-determination’

• ‘Distinct peoples’

• ‘Fundamental rights’

• ‘Recognition of culture, language, religion’

• Respect for diversity, or rhetoric?

Challenges for Advisors

• Need for conceptual and analytical work

• Necessarily ambiguous

• Resistance to mother tongue from parents

Tension between rights ideology, resource constraints and lack of direct influence

Policies in Practice

• Bolivia & Nicaragua

• Zambia & Mozambique

• Nepal

• Diverse policies

• Role of language differs

• Danida support differs

Bolivia & Nicaragua

• Intercultural bilingual education (IBE)

• IBE as ‘right’ & strategy for ‘quality’

• IBE for citizenship

• IBE for inclusion of indigenous groups

Zambia & Mozambique

• Language factor absent!

• Historic place of English

• Primary Reading Programme

- Lack of political will

- English language teacher training

- Capacity of education sector

Nepal

• Mother tongue recognised• National strategy for Inclusive

Education (2003)• Monolingual reality!

- Translated materials but Nepali teaching

- Danida complacence/ policy drift- ‘Linguistic imperialism’

Challenges

• Politics and culture

• Aid philosophy

• Aid structures

• Capacity

• Infrastructure and resources

Other Reflections

• ‘Quality’ as loose signifier

Be analytical. Advocate!

• Harmonisation requires new strategies & structures

Civil society organisations?

Finally

‘Language policy is a pawn in the struggle for, or the preservation of, power and this is by no means a typically African phenomenon’.

(Cummins 2000)