African govts under fire for lapses in teacher training

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From Angola Press Luanda - Tuesday, August 09, 2005

African govts under fire for lapses in teacher training


Windhoek, 04/08 - African governments falter in teacher-training policies,
and lack clear directions in the modelling of young learners, African
experts charged here Thursday as they began discussing a new language
policy for the continent. The experts criticised African countries for
sacrificing teacher-training institutions at the whims of international
donor organizations, making the centres unable to produce quality teachers
to help students cope with changing democratic trends across Africa.

"We will never know the value of using national (or native) languages
unless the teachers are trained in the use of African languages," said
Allissane Ndiaye, director of Literacy Programmes and Adult Education in
the Senegalese ministry of Education. "There are no indications that our
countries are about to shift somewhere in that direction of using African
languages," Ndiaye lamented.

The experts drawn from 17 African nations, mainly heads of language
institutes and donor institutions, are holding a three-day conference here
to discuss a draft language policy aimed at raising the quality of
education through the use of native languages in schools.

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