The English-only language education policy in The Gambia and low literacy rates

• Herbert Igboanusi ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Ibadan

     University of Ibadan

     Nigeria

     
• Localización: International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, ISSN 1367-0050, Vol. 17, Nº. 5, 2014, págs. 558-569
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The education policies of 1988–2003 and 2004–2015 in The Gambia make provisions for the use of the L1 or area languages to serve as the media of instruction from Grades 1 to 3 and as school subjects from Grade 4 onwards. However, the policy on the use of L1 for teaching has not been implemented and what is practised instead is the use of English as a means of teaching from pre-primary to the tertiary level education. Since English is the weakest language of the pupils, schools witness high drop-out rates, limited access to education, inability to read with understanding in the early grades, a lack of understanding of the content of the subject taught, and more seriously, high rate of illiteracy. The present paper reviews the English-only education policy in The Gambia and proposes a reform of the education policy in that country.