Policy Guide for the Successful Integration of African Languages and Cultures into Education

From 20 to 22 January 2010, UIL and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) held a Ministerial Conference on the Integration of African Languages and Cultures into Education in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The conference was hosted by the Ministry of Basic Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso. The main outcome of the conference was a policy guide developed in collaboration with experts from all over Africa. It was designed to promote multilingual education in Africa, recognising that African languages
and cultures are crucial for social cohesion at the national and regional levels and a key factor in enabling universal access to education. The guide was discussed and adopted by Ministers of Education from 20 African countries. It covers the following eight thematic areas for the development of an effective policy for multilingual and multicultural education:

• the establishment of policy and legislative frameworks;
• general awareness-raising and advocacy, and the development of regional networks;
• institutional strengthening and capacity-building;
• the development of monitoring and evaluation strategies which ensure the evaluation of learning outcomes;
• curriculum development and training measures;
• publishing and book policy;
• research and pedagogical innovations; and
• the mobilisation of financial resources. Prior to the conference in Ouagadougou, UIL worked with ADEA to develop an evidence-based advocacy policy brief in favour of the use of African languages in education to act as a background document during the meeting.