Interrelationships of Non-Formal Mother Tongue Education and Citizenship in Guinea and Senegal

Guinea and Senegal are multilingual countries that use French as a language of instruction in the formal educational sector with some significant exceptions. As in many other African countries, such exceptions in Guinea and Senegal, use local African languages primarily in the non-formal sector for a variety of purposes, such as adult literacy and basic education for youth. In this chapter, we examine mother tongue (MT) education as it contributes to a type of citizenship education, focusing on the ways that MT education can, with varying degrees of effectiveness, redefine local communities and forge alliances with communities of near and distant places and at local, regional, national, and global levels. The two case studies presented here, of the N'KO schools in Guinea and the "Ecole Communautaires de Base" programs in Senegal, offer examples of different approaches to MT education and its impact prevalent not only in Guinea and Senegal but also other countries in the immediate region of West Africa and beyond. (Contains 3 notes.)