As much as 40% of the world’s population* don’t have access to education in a language they speak or understand. That’s equivalent to 2.3 billion people.

We have learned this week that it can be difficult to integrate mother tongues in the education system of African countries that have many different native languages, and sometimes no teachers or textbooks to teach in these languages.

Civil society organizations are pushing hard for this to change, by advocating for policy reform, organizing community engagement, and ensuring that agreed changes are actually implemented.

At GPE, we are proud to support partner countries that place mother tongue instruction high on their agenda, like in Madagascar, Rwanda and Zambia.

*  Source: Walter, Stephen & Benson, Carol (2012) Language policy and medium of instruction in formal education. In Spolsky, Bernard (ed) The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy, 278-300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.