By Abdulwasiu Hassan
Garba Nahantchi, an official in Niger's education ministry, is nonplussed at the thought of some parents worrying that their wards won't get a head start in life if they start their journey of learning in the native tongue.
"A lot of parents believe that teaching children in their mother tongue is backwardness," he told TRT Afrika.
Garba argues that it is quite the other way round. "Any child that is not being taught in the native language, at least in the initial years, is forced to imbibe a culture that is not one's own. So, part of the effects of this new policy is to uphold our culture," he says.
In a country whose literacy rate is among the lowest in the world, this is a contentious topic.
According to data from UNESCO's Institute of Statistics, the West African nation's literacy rate at the end of 2022 stood at 37%. Although there is a consensus that the Republic of Niger needs to work faster and harder to improve education, the road to this common goal seems to have divided experts and parents.
Some experts believe that using an unfamiliar language as the medium of instruction during a child’s first few years in school could potentially have a negative impact on learning going forward.
"The old method (French as the lone medium of instruction) devastated our cultures; that's why the government decided to adopt the new model," says Garba.
But implementing the policy of imparting education in the native tongue specific to a region in the first three years of primary school hasn't been easy.
Garba recalls an instance when a parent confronted a teacher, demanding to know why she was speaking the same Zarma language his child speaks at home. "The parent argued that he didn't enrol his child in school to learn the language he already knows."
Officials called in to intervene had a hard time trying to convince him that reading and writing in the Zarma language is a skill worth learning.
French barrier broken
The government's policy introduced in 2012 makes it mandatory to use the mother tongue spoken by pupils at home as the language of instruction in the early years of education.
“We teach a child from grade 1 to 3 in his/her mother tongue. Though French is still taught, it isn't the predominant medium of instruction," explains Garba. "When a child reaches the grade 4, 50% of the instruction will be in French, while the rest will be in the child's native tongue."
The policy was made applicable to 500 schools within the country after it was introduced. Of the 10 languages spoken in the country, eight were selected for the programme.
Long transition
Niger had been considering the idea of using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction for early education since the 1970s.
“Since 2012, this method of instruction has been implemented only in select schools," Mallam Kassoum Issa, a retired schoolteacher, told TRT Afrika.
Education authorities in the country, where French remains the official language, believe the policy is working despite the challenges it is facing.
Studies comparing traditional schools (French), Franco-Arabic schools and bilingual schools (where students learn in their mother tongue and French) reveal that the latter ranks the highest in terms of quality of learning. Schools where only French is used rank the lowest, according to the Global Partnership for Education.
"Of about 21,000 primary schools in the country, the native-language instruction programme is being done in 5,000," says Garba. "By 2027, we are hoping that the government will make the programme applicable to all schools throughout the country at primary one (grade 1) level," he said.
Catching them young
Dr Nicholas Dominique, a product of the early Nigerien experiment of early education in one's native tongue, believes the policy gave him a head start in his career.
A security analyst specialising on the Sahel region, he went through this educational arrangement in his first three years at Ecole Hausa in Maradi. "Whenever there was an examination, those who started with Hausa would always do better than those who started their education in the French language,” he said.
Apart from the Hausa and French he learnt in Niger, Dr Nicholas speaks English, which he studied while attending university in neighbouring Nigeria.
According to stakeholders, Niger's education policy does not downplay the importance of learning foreign languages. Instead it prioritises mother tongue’s role in early education over others.
According to Issa, if students are able to learn in their mother tongue, it will be provide a solid basis for any foreign language."Rather than being seen as rivals, the native tongue being used in early education will form a pair of twins with the French language."
Dr Nicholas advocates an awareness campaign aimed at making parents embrace the policy, focusing on the advantages their children would have going forward.
It remains to be seen how successful the policy will be when it is made applicable to schools throughout the West African country, especially in terms of raising literacy and advancing education.
