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Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 3:57 PM Following on Madia Thomson's suggestion re educational policy, I imagine you'll want to consider the issue of language of instruction. French policy apparently went through phases. The early experiment of Jean Dard in St. Louis with instruction in Wolof was put to an end by the colonial government, and for a long time in colonial French schools children would be punished for speaking their mother tongue in school (this sort of approach, common for a while in colonial Africa, was also used in the past in other world regions, such as in the US with Native Americans). This was later eased. One reference (in French) with mention of the history is an article by Lamine Sanogo from a colloquium last year "Pour une politique des langues partenaires dans le système éducatif burkinabé" : http://afecinfo.free.fr/ouaga/communications/Ouaga073Sanogo.pdf . There must be lots more. I have no references in English on this topic at hand, but John Hutchison (Boston University) has written on contemporary language of instruction issues in the region, so would be a contact on this. ... > Having established things thus, you might then consider educational policy > beginning with the famous (if not infamous) "nos ancestres les gaullois," ...
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