The English-only language education policy in The Gambia and low literacy rates
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[1] University of Ibadan
University of Ibadan
Nigeria
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- 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 ...)
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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.
