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<span class="gmail-timestamp__date--published">08/03/2017 10:35</span>
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/aaron-benavot">
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<span class="gmail-author-card__details-container"><a class="gmail-author-card__details__link" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/aaron-benavot"><span class="gmail-author-card__details__name">Aaron Benavot</span>
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Director of the Global Education Monitoring Report at UNESCO
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<p><strong><img class="gmail-size-medium gmail-wp-image-9523 gmail-alignright" src="https://gemreportunesco.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/imld2017_0.jpg?w=300" alt="imld2017_0" width="300" height="183" align="left"></strong>The most widely read GEM Report publication is our paper last year on <a href="https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/if-you-don%E2%80%99t-understand-how-can-you-learn#sthash.zkz4m7Mg.dpbs">language policy in education</a>.
Why? Because there are about 6,500 languages spoken in the world today,
and, as we showed in that study, a staggering 40% of the global
population are learning in a language they don’t understand.</p>
<p>It doesn’t need explaining perhaps, that being taught by a teacher in
a language you don’t speak at home will negatively impact your school
performance and test results, but it continues to be a hotly contested
topic around the world - as recent headlines from <a href="http://www.elcomercial.com.ar/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=218320:indignacion-aborigen-ante-decision-nacional-de-eliminar-la-educacion-intercultural-bilinguee&catid=4:locales&Itemid=55">Argentina</a>, <a href="https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2017/01/indias-obssesion-with-english/">India</a> and <a href="http://leadershipmagazine.org/?p=12032">Uganda</a> illustrate.</p>
<p>Politics and ideology are two reasons the issue is contested, but
cost is another. Multilingual teaching, the training needed to support
it, and the revision of existing learning materials result in a hefty
bill. This is why we should loudly celebrate when countries do make the
leap to multilingual schools: The Ministry of Education in Malaysia made
such an announcement after the GEM Report’s policy paper was released
last year. Referencing our <a href="https://bitly.com/MLD2016">recommendation for children to receive at least six years of education in a language they understand</a>, they announced they would be making 300 schools bilingual.</p>
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<p><strong>The language of instruction can exacerbate inequalities in learning achievement</strong></p>
<p>New data from our World Inequality Database on Education (<a href="http://www.education-inequalities.org/">WIDE database</a>) show the powerful influence that language of instruction has on learning.</p>
<p>A 2013 <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/education/education-assessment-llece/">assessment</a>
among primary school children in Latin America showed, for example,
that in Colombia 71% passed the second level of a reading assessment
when they spoke the same language at home, but only 11% passed when they
did not. In Nicaragua 48% passed when they spoke the same language at
home, but only 7% passed when they did not.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.education-inequalities.org/indicators/rlevel_prim#?sort=mean&dimension=speaks_language&group=all&age_group=rlevel2_prim&countries=all&survey=LLECE" target="_blank"><img class="gmail-wp-image-9519" src="https://gemreportunesco.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/wide-2017-mld.png?w=300" alt="wide-2017-mld" width="278" height="243" align="left"></a> <a href="http://www.education-inequalities.org/indicators/rlevel_prim#?sort=mean&dimension=speaks_language&group=all&age_group=rlevel2_prim&countries=all&survey=LLECE">CLICK TO ENLARGE</a></p>
<p>And it’s not just reading, at the primary level learning gaps also
exist in science and mathematics. In Guatemala for example, 38% of
children passed the second level of a mathematics <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/education/education-assessment-llece/">assessment</a>
among those who speak the language of instruction at home compared to
just 8% of those who do not. In Peru, 64% of children passed the second
level of a mathematics assessment, compared to 23% who did not.</p>
<p>Data from a 2012 UNICEF study also show that our recommendation of 6
years of mother tongue instruction presents challenges in many settings.
Where many languages exist, as in Vietnam, it can be complicated
finding a teacher who can meet all students’ needs. One survey showed
that Vietnamese was the first language of 70% of teachers but it was the
strongest language for only 1 in 5 students.</p>
<p><img class="gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-9532 gmail-aligncenter" src="https://gemreportunesco.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/mld.jpg" alt="mld" width="580" height="330"></p>
<p>It should come as no surprise that learning gaps also exist in
wealthier countries, and are likely to grow as more families seek to
improve their life chances and those of their children by moving across
borders. In the 2012 PISA survey run by the OECD, nearly 15% of
15-year-old students did not speak the language of instruction at home,
but among first generation immigrant students, this rose to 63%. Even as
many as 38% of second-generation immigrant students spoke a different
language at home too. In Finland, for example, 94% of primary school
children who speak the language of instruction at home passed the second
level a <a href="http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2011/index.html">science assessment</a>
that just 58% passed among those who did not. Indeed, in many of these
contexts students from immigrant families are among the most
disadvantaged.</p>
<p>Overall there is a growing body of evidence that supports our
recommendation: at least six years of mother tongue instruction is
needed in order to reduce learning gaps for minority language speakers.</p>
<p><strong>Getting to grips with mother-tongue instruction through data</strong></p>
<p>The important role of language for achieving our global goal for equitable, inclusive and quality education is recognized in <a href="http://gem-report-2016.unesco.org/en/chapter/target-4-5-equity/">target 4.5</a>,
the target that looks at equity in education. One of the indicators set
up to measure this target is the percentage of students in primary and
secondary education, whose first or home language is used as language of
instruction.</p>
<p>A good starting point to measure this indicator is to map language
policies in official policy documents. A recent study in sub-Saharan
Africa showed that at the time of countries’ independence, 43% of
sub-Saharan African countries used local languages in primary education,
compared with 80% now.</p>
<p>However, it’s not enough to look at policies, we must also monitor
whether these policies are implemented, as Mali demonstrates. In Mali,
in 2002, the government introduced a multilingual curriculum,
introducing 11 national languages in addition to French. Yet, a decade
after this reform, school-level implementation problems were
considerable. In 2010, in the Mopti region, for instance, only 1% of
schools were providing bilingual instruction by a trained teacher, in
the appropriate language throughout primary school.</p>
<p>In many other multilingual countries few, if any, reading books are
available in the languages children speak. The content of education, <a href="https://bitly.com/btwthelines">as the 2016 GEM Report has</a>
reiterated, must urgently be included in monitoring efforts if we are
to reach our global targets in education and realize progress in other
spheres of development.</p>
<p><strong>Mother-tongue instruction doesn’t just benefit learning but also protects knowledge</strong></p>
<p>We recently celebrated International Mother Language Day, with the theme of <em>Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education</em>, in alignment with our 2016 Report <a href="http://gem-report-2016.unesco.org/en/home/"><em>Education for people and planet: Creating sustainable futures for all</em></a>.
Our Report showed the importance of learning sustainable practices from
indigenous communities in schools, which otherwise are in danger of
being lost. Teaching in local languages is an effective way to impart
traditional knowledge.</p>
<p>This is a significant concern. Research has documented how formal schooling has <a href="https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/in-my-tribe-we-go-to-a-different-type-of-school/">resulted in a significant loss of knowledge about nature, culture and values among indigenous children</a>.
Examples from Australia, Canada and the United States show an
significant loss of indigenous knowledge from the beginning of the 20th
century, when indigenous children were sent to residential schools or
put up for forced adoption.</p>
<p>Yet by respecting local cultures and plural knowledge systems, and
providing instruction in local languages, relevant knowledge can be
shared among generations and communities both within and outside of
school, and promote conservation of indigenous knowledge. For example,
in Botswana, the Bokamoso preschool programme provides teacher trainees
with a system of nature based educational tools incorporating the
traditional knowledge of the San, a major indigenous group in the
region.</p>
<p><strong>Governments must do more to promote mother tongue learning</strong></p>
<p>The continuing neglect of mother tongue instruction in linguistically
diverse countries partly accounts for large disparities in education
outcomes. While tracking language of instruction is fraught with
technical and possibly political challenges, it is a key issue that
governments must tackle head-on to protect indigenous knowledge and
ensure no one is left behind.</p>
<br></div><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/aaron-benavot/multilingual-teaching-doe_b_15233386.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/aaron-benavot/multilingual-teaching-doe_b_15233386.html</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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