Initial Funding Ideas
(These initial ideas were developed in July 2020 and may still be of interest to potential donors and collaborators, who are welcome to contact the Steering Committee for further information.)
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Rationale
Primary education using indigenous languages as the medium of instruction for the first few years only is still the norm in Africa south of the Sahara (the early-exit model). This model continues to be used in spite of the long-standing scientific consensus that shows it to be inefficient and inadequate. It means that most African children receive instruction in a language they are familiar with (their L1 or ‘mother tongue’1) only for the first few years of primary education at best. After that, they are forced to switch to a new language, usually the former colonial language. Africa south of the Sahara is the only large part of the world where this is the case. This form of instruction worked well in the colonial period, when only a small portion of all children received formal education. However, now that primary education is almost universal in Africa and secondary and higher education are expanding rapidly, this model is no longer sustainable. It is wasteful and leaves those who do not succeed to master the new language sufficiently well with an inadequate qualification and insufficient language skills for any purpose (language stunting or semilingualism).
Therefore, with rising enrolment, it becomes imperative to develop and implement new language policies in education in Africa, policies that are based on using African languages as medium of instruction. This is not an easy task. Thus, African languages are themselves very diverse – therefore, choosing languages in such a way that nobody is left out is a challenge. In addition, many languages have not been developed for use in education. Many groups have a vested interest in the current situation or have come to believe that it offers the best for their children, in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary. Power and identity politics may intertwine in many countries, leading to a debate that is based more on group rivalry than a search for inclusive solutions.
Yet, there is a growing group of social scientists, educationalists and linguists in Africa and its diaspora that have the vision and the knowledge to initiate a science-based policy debate on these issues. However, in most countries, these scientists are still in a minority position and face an uphill battle to try to convince administrators, policy makers, donors and the general public of their position. Therefore, in 2019 an initiative was formed for an international network that aims to bring together linguists, educationalists and other social scientists from across the continent and abroad to try to provide mutual support, exchange information and ideas, foster research and help prepare proposals based on best practice and sound scientific argument. This is the Edinburgh Circle on the Promotion of African Languages (ECPAL) (the Circle, in short). The Circle was formed at the ECAS Conference 2019 – summaries of the presentations given there are available online.
Goals
Long-term goal is to set in motion a process that will lead to:
• Empowering African scientists through networking, mutual support, exchange of policy and research ideas and best practice examples.
• Adoption of inclusive language-in-education policies in African countries that make use of African languages as medium of instruction in secondary and higher education.
• The establishment of language academies, language promotion institutes or similar in various African countries.
• Networking such institutions on a continental scale.
In order to do this, support is sought for the following types of activities:
1. Support for presenting at appropriate international fora
In spite of several reports that contain strong pleas for increased use of African languages, the issue is currently not being discussed at larger international scientific conferences concerning Africa. The medium of instruction in (higher) education in Africa, its relevance for development and the challenges a transition would pose for policies in African countries are not a prominent theme. In order to change this, support is sought that will allow Circle members, especially from African countries, to propose panel discussions and paper presentations at key
international conferences, such as the World Congress of Applied Linguistics, the various African Studies Conferences and the World Congress on African Languages. The hope is that post-Covid-19 the possibilities for online presence will be increased. Still, some support to cover conference fees, travel and subsistence expenses will also be needed in future.
There are other fora where these ideas have been discussed, such as the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). Support is needed to be able to follow up on calls for proposals and inputs by these fora as they are issued and to seek strategic collaboration with them as appropriate.
2. Support for national-level activities in African countries
Most African countries have a formal language in education policy. Implementation of these policies is patchy to say the least, but they do provide a starting point. Circle members working in relevant African countries should receive support for reviewing existing policies, evaluating policy proposals and engaging with relevant officials at the national level in the development of new policies. This could include presenting papers at relevant national conferences or bringing interested scientists together for national-level seminars and to prepare relevant inputs.
3. Support for policy-relevant research
Linguistic research in Africa south of the Sahara tends to focus on documenting actual language use, largely ignoring the field of language policies. More applied research is needed on what works and what does not work for language policies to be successfully planned and implemented.
In addition, very little research has been done into what an educational system can be expected to achieve given a certain input level, what the role is of the medium of instruction and how African educational systems as a whole can be made more efficient.
It is necessary to empower scientists to prepare coherent proposals for policy-relevant research and to obtain funding for them. Scientists should be empowered to publish their research results in relevant international journals, covering for example open-access publishing charges or helping with editorial assistance.
4. Support for international support, coordination and outreach
Setting in motion the process as outlined above needs to be catalysed by international networking and facilitating international exchange of ideas. Therefore, support is needed for setting up and maintaining an interactive website, the production and distribution of a newsletter and for small seminars or gatherings of Circle members and/or others who share the same vision, possibly just before or after appropriate international conferences.
Institutional setup
Currently, the Circle is an informal group of people that has a small steering committee, but no formal status. Funding support for the Circle could be channelled through one of the institutions where Circle members are employed.
As a first step, we are trying to identify supporters who might be interested in helping to fund
part of this programme in order to develop more targeted proposals in the near future.
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Note:
1 In some parts of Africa, children are bi- or multilingual from birth, so that they have more than one L1 or ‘mother tongue’.