EdData II: Data for Education Research and Programming (derp) in Africa

Finally, language plan 
objectives and activities 
should be developed in 
partnership with the 
institutions and/or 
individuals responsible for 
carrying them out, and 
accompanied by realistic 
short- and long-term 
timelines and a budget. 
A 
budget for each of the 
components is helpful to 
identify where funds may be 
needed, and whether these are 
one-off expenses (for example, 
language standardization 
efforts, development of pupil 
and teacher materials in new 
languages, etc.) or recurring 
costs that may already be 
accounted for in the overall 
education sector budget (such 
as materials distribution, 
teacher training, etc.). It is important to emphasize to stakeholders that many costs 
associated with developing and implementing a new plan for language use in education 
will be one-time expenses and that they will be recovered through less “wastage” (i.e., 
poor learning outcomes and dropout) resulting from effective use of language in 
education. Moreover, a large proportion of the cost of many of these one-off activities is 
the time needed for government personnel to participate in the planning and development 
of the language plan and products. Once these one-off expenses have been incurred, the 
Factors affecting time needed for language planning 
The amount of time required for planning will depend on several 
factors, including: 
•
The country’s previous or current experience implementing some 
form of L1-based instruction, and existence of policies and/or 
plans for doing so 
•
Level of support within the Ministry of Education and other 
relevant institutions (teacher training colleges, unions, etc.) and 
stakeholders (parents, teachers, etc.) for L1-based instruction 
•
Availability of curriculum and materials in target languages and 
teachers trained to teach in them 
•
Financial resources available to develop and implement plan 
(note that many are “one off” costs associated with initial 
development of curriculum, teaching and learning materials, and 
teacher training resources) 
•
Availability of “champions” and key stakeholders to assist with 
the planning and implementation process; ability of the education 
sector to move forward on a plan.
However, experience indicates that many activities can take place 
relatively quickly with good planning and support from key 
stakeholders (see country experiences described in various text 
boxes). Moreover, as activities get under way, support often 
continues to grow as people see the results of their labor (i.e., a set of 
textbooks developed in two languages can quickly lead to more being 
developed for other languages, as lessons learned are applied to the 
development of those in new languages).

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41 
education sector’s large fixed costs—teacher salaries and infrastructure—are not likely to 
be affected by a plan for language use in education. It is important to remember that cost, 
in and of itself, should not be viewed as a barrier to providing instruction in languages 
that children understand, given the long-term benefits to learning outcomes and to the 
cost-effectiveness of education provision.