The Economic Impact of Indigenous versus Colonial Languages as the Medium of Instruction in Africa: The Case of Tanzania
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- When African lands were colonized by European powers, not only were new systems of governance, boundaries, and economics usually imposed, their educational institutions were often designed to mimic the institutions of the relevant colonial power. For instance, in African areas colonized by the English, educational institutions were often made to adopt English-style curricula, English testing, and the English language as the medium of instruction (especially in upper grades). The same could be said for areas colonized by the French, Germans, Belgians, or Italians. On the one hand, teaching students in the colonial language might be negative because it may make instruction less comprehensible; it may encourage the development of curricula that are less accessible and relevant; and it discourage the development of institutions that are the best “match” with the people and their culture. On the other hand, teaching students in the colonial language may give them more opportunities to attend university in or emigrate to the colonizing country which, in practice, nearly always has a higher standard of living, more advanced educational institutions, and—possibly—more occupational opportunities. Note, however, that the extent of all these opportunities depends on the degree to which the relevant Africans are discriminated against in access to or treatment at these opportunities. In this paper, I analyze these two competing hypotheses by studying the economic and other effects of Tanzania’s 1995 switch of its language of instruction from a colonial language (English) to an indigenous language (Kiswahili).
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | [ca. June 2023] |
| Publication date | June 26, 2023; June 26, 2023 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Somda, Roxane Farida Bèyirè |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Hoxby, Caroline |
Subjects
| Subject | Educational attainment, economic growth, Africa, colonialization, indigenous language, native language, Kiswahili, English, French. |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Somda, R. (2023). The Economic Impact of Indigenous versus Colonial Languages as the Medium of Instruction in Africa: The Case of Tanzania. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/rk246qz3774. https://doi.org/10.25740/rk246qz3774.
Collection
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses
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- rsomda@stanford.edu
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