IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v5y2013i5p1994-2017d25484.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local Languages of Instruction as a Right in Education for Sustainable Development in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite

    (University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1092 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway)

Abstract

Today’s educational challenges in Africa have their roots in the colonial education system. The article explores the consequences of linguistic choices for quality education, self-determined development and children’s rights in education. The analysis centers on a case study of a curriculum change in Zanzibar in which English has replaced Kiswahili as the language of instruction in the last years of primary school in Mathematics and Science subjects. The case study is grounded in an extensive review of theory and practices on the relationship between language of instruction, learning and rights in education. The field study researched the reasons behind the curriculum change, the extent to which schools were prepared for the change, and the consequences of the change for the learning environment. The article, therefore suggests that for the 21st century, Africa should place emphasis on rights policies that promotes not only access, but also inclusion and quality education.

Suggested Citation

  • Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite, 2013. "Local Languages of Instruction as a Right in Education for Sustainable Development in Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(5), pages 1-24, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:5:p:1994-2017:d:25484
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/5/1994/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/5/1994/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lubei Zhang & Linda Tsung & Zhuoma, 2020. "Exploring Sustainable Multilingual Language Policy in Minority Higher Education in China: A Case Study of the Tibetan Language," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Torsten Richter & Antje Rendigs & Claudette Patricia Maminirina, 2015. "Conservation Messages in Speech Bubbles–Evaluation of an Environmental Education Comic Distributed in Elementary Schools in Madagascar," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-26, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:5:p:1994-2017:d:25484. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.