By IPS Correspondents
ABIDJAN, Oct 7 1996 (IPS)

A decision by Cote d’Ivoire’s authorities to reintroduce local languages in primary schools has met with protests from some educators.

Education Minister Pierre Kipre announced recently that, from next year, at least 10 local languages would be taught on an experimental basis in selected primary schools across the West African country.

The aim, according to Kipre, is to enable Ivoirians to read and write not only in French, the official language, but also their mother tongues — there are 63 languages and dialects here.

“It is time we start appreciating our own languages and this programme forms part of our cultural orientation programme to enable Ivoirians to have a true national identity and pride,” said Kipre. “The success of the experimental programme, which would last between two and three years would enable us to prepare a nationwide vernacular teaching programme.”

Kipre is confident the programme has high chances of success “because we have the Institute of applied linguistics, which has the capacity to produce manuals and syllabuses in any language spoken in our country.”

But many education experts and parents are worried.

Jeremie Kouadio N’Guessan, head of the linguistics department at the National University of Abidjan, believes the programme has not been sufficiently well-prepared.

“Everything is vague right now,” says N’Guessan. “They have to tell us if these languages are going to be taught as a profession or just as a medium of expression. Either way, there are structures which have to be put in place.

“We do not have the human resources, nor the materials to begin this experiment now. Actually, I do not understand why our minister is pushing this programme now.”

Another critic says: “Knowing our educational system, I would not be surprised to hear one day very soon that Pierre Kipre’s ambitious cultural orientation programme has become stillborn.”

This is Cote d’Ivoire’s second attempt to teach vernacular languages in schools. Between 1984 and 1989, a similar programme was run in the northern part of the country with funding from the World Bank.

Although assessment reports by both the ministry of education and the Bank showed that children were keen to learn local languages, the programme collapsed when funds petered out.

Guidy Wandja, a teacher whose children are still in school, is also concerned. “Starting this programme this (academic) year would tell on educational budgets and the kids’ capacity to take on another subject without ample mental preparations,” she told IPS. “We have not yet finished buying materials for the regular lessons. Now they are imposing a supplementary programme on us.

“Right now, what I know as an educational worker and mother is that this programme is not going to achieve the desired results if started now, because enough preparations have not been made.”

The move comes at a time when Cote d’Ivoire’s education system, one of West Africa’s best in the 1970s, is still feeling the effects of economic reforms adopted in 1990.

Annual economic growth rates of seven to 12 percent in the 1970s had enabled the government to heavily subsidise education and even experiment with televised lessons, one of the few African nations to do so. However, an economic downturn in the 1980s led to adjustment measures whose effect on social sectors, including education, is evident even though figures are hard to come by.

Although public schools do not charge fees, parents pay for educational materials — unlike in the 1970s. Moreover, schools are not keeping up with the annual three percent population growth rate and many children fail to find places.

The school-age population increased from 1.3 million to 2.08 million between 1980 and 1992, but the percentage of children enrolled shrank from 79 to 69 percent, according to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

However, Kipre is determined to implement the programme.

“I admit that we are going to have teething problems, but that cannot stop this programme from taking off now,” he says. “We have set up a national commission which is working hard to ensure that at least by next January, the programme will start.”

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