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

Facilitation of child-centered learning. 
Students can participate better in class, and 
teachers can engage them more actively, if they share a common, familiar language.
•
Improved gender equity.
L1-based education has been shown to have a positive effect 
on girls’ enrollment, attendance, and school participation.
•
Accurate assessment of student learning.
When students can express themselves in a 
familiar language, teachers can better monitor and evaluate learning outcomes and 
identify which students need further assistance.
•
Increased cost-effectiveness.
Providing instruction to children in a language they 
understand can be more cost effective, due to reductions in repetition, dropouts, and poor 
learning outcomes resulting from a mismatch between children’s language and the LOI. 
•
Greater parental and community involvement in education.
L1 use in schools 
increases parents’ ability to interact with school officials, understand what their children 
are learning, and provide support to pupils.

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•
Provides socio-cultural benefits. 
Use of L1 and familiar languages in school helps to 
validate and preserve children’s and their communities’ language and culture. 
Taken as a whole, the outcomes listed above furthermore contribute to institutional strengthening 
and workforce development, thereby reducing social exclusion and decreasing the likelihood of 
social unrest and conflict.
These benefits of providing education in languages familiar to children have long been 
recognized in national, regional, and international education fora, including as far back as the 
1961 First Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Addis Ababa 
(United Nations Economic 
Commission for Africa, 1961), 
whose delegates recommended 
L1-based instruction; and in a 
series of studies commissioned 
by the Association for 
Development of Education in 
Africa (ADEA) (later published 
in Ouane and Glanz, 2011). This 
work contributed to the 2010 
adoption by 18 African Ministers 
of Education of the 
Common 
policy guidelines on the 
integration of African languages 
and cultures into education 
curricula
. Yet more than 50 
years since the 1961 Addis 
Ababa conference, the majority 
of African students are still 
expected to start and complete 
their schooling in an unfamiliar language (Ouane, 2009). Why?