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Annex H. Summary of the Early Grade Reading Materials Survey in Senegal

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Annex H. Summary of the Early Grade Reading Materials Survey in Senegal Annex H. Summary of the Early Grade Reading Materials Survey in Senegal Geography and Demographics 196,722 square Size: kilometers (km2) Population: 14 million (2015) Capital: Dakar Urban: 44% (2015) Administrative 14 regions Divisions: Religion: 95% Muslim 4% Christian 1% Traditional Source: Central Intelligence Agency (2015). Note: Population and percentages are rounded. Literacy Projected 2013 Primary School 2015 Age Population (aged 2.2 million Literacy a a 7–12 years): Rates: Overall Male Female Adult (aged 2013 Primary School 56% 68% 44% 84%, up from 65% in 1999 >15 years) GER:a Youth (aged 2013 Pre-primary School 70% 76% 64% 15%,up from 3% in 1999 15–24 years) GER:a Language: French Mean: 18.4 correct words per minute When: 2009 Oral Reading Fluency: Standard deviation: 20.6 Sample EGRA Where: 11 regions 18% zero scores Resultsb 11% reading with ≥60% Reading comprehension Who: 687 P3 students Comprehension: 52% zero scores Note: EGRA = Early Grade Reading Assessment; GER = Gross Enrollment Rate; P3 = Primary Grade 3. Percentages are rounded. a Source: UNESCO (2015). b Source: Pouezevara et al. (2010). Language Number of Living Languages:a 210 Major Languagesb Estimated Populationc Government Recognized Statusd 202 DERP in Africa—Reading Materials Survey Final Report 47,000 (L1) (2015) French “Official” language 3.9 million (L2) (2013) “National” language Wolof 5.2 million (L1) (2015) de facto largest LWC Pulaar 3.5 million (L1) (2015) “National” language Serer-Sine 1.4 million (L1) (2015) “National” language Maninkakan (i.e., Malinké) 1.3 million (L1) (2015) “National” language Soninke 281,000 (L1) (2015) “National” language Jola-Fonyi (i.e., Diola) 340,000 (L1) “National” language Balant, Bayot, Guñuun, Hassanya, Jalunga, Kanjaad, Laalaa, Mandinka, Manjaaku, “National” languages Mankaañ, Mënik, Ndut, Noon, __ Oniyan, Paloor, and Saafi- Saafi Note: L1 = first language; L2 = second language; LWC = language of wider communication. a Source: Lewis et al. (2015). b Most languages go by several different names; several languages have the same name. In case of confusion, refer to the Ethnologue at www.ethnologue.com (Lewis et al., 2015). c Source: Lewis et al. (2015). The dates for the speaker population estimates vary by language and are provided (when available) in parentheses. d Source: Article 1, Section 1 of the Republic of Senegal Constitution; RTI International (2015). Senegal Findings in Brief: The Government of Senegal has supported the use of national languages in education in experimental programs and may be moving toward a more explicit policy prescribing bilingual education at the early primary level. The study surveyed 460 titles in Senegal. The inventories for each language were not necessarily proportional to the language group size because some of the larger languages had few or no titles, whereas some of the smaller languages had many. Most of the surveyed titles (85 percent) were copyrighted, with only 14 (three percent) granting permissions for reuse under specific conditions. The Senegalese data were exceptional with the striking dominance of nongovernmental organization publishers (409 titles [89 percent]). However, similar to other countries in the survey, the Senegalese materials were characterized by a greater number of supplementary materials than textbook-related (at a slightly more than 2:1 ratio), with student textbooks and narrative texts the most numerous in each category. The results of the study also revealed a high percentage of supplementary texts with greater than 75 words per page, and a low incidence of potentially sensitive content or gender and ethnic/religious imbalance. In addition, people with disabilities were rarely featured. The Senegalese inventory was fairly recent, with 253 titles (55 percent) having been 1. Language in Education Policy in Senegal Article 1, Section 1 of the 2001 Constitution of the Republic of Senegal assigns official language status to French and “national” language status to Diola (Jola-Fonyi), Malinke, Pulaar, Serer, Soninke, Wolof, “and any other national language [that] has been codified.” Codification is a lengthy and rigorous process whereby a language’s orthography is developed and standardized, its grammar is analyzed and documented, it obtains official status as a “national” language on equal footing with all other national languages, and it is sanctioned for use in the media, courts, DERP in Africa—Reading Materials Survey Final Report 203 and schools. As of 2015, 22 languages in Senegal had been codified, including Balant, Bayot, Guñuun, Hassanya, Jalunga, Joola, Kanjaad, Laalaa, Mandinka, Manjaaku, Mankaañ, Mënik, Ndut, Noon, Oniyan, Paloor, Pulaar, Sooninke, Saafi-Saafi, Seereer, and Wolof (RTI International, 2015; Bathily Toure and Badiane, personal communication, December 10, 2015). An explicit policy does not exist in Senegal regarding the use of languages in education, though as of this writing, a government working group is in the process of finalizing a proposal for a new official policy (A. Niang, personal communication, December 16, 2015). Several official documents have been favorable to the use of national languages in education, including the following: • Article 22, Section 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Senegal, which compels all institutions to develop literacy in the national languages. • The Lettre de politique générale pour le secteur de l’éducation et la formation (General Policy Letter for the Education and Training Sector), which promotes the gradual development of the use of national languages in the education system (Government of Senegal, 2013). • The Assises de l’Education du Sénégal (2014; the Annual Conference on Education of Senegal), which supports the use of national languages as integral to a successful school. The government has supported several experimental projects in bilingual education that use French and one of six codified national languages. The largest project was implemented in 465 classrooms between 2002 and 2008 (RTI International, 2015). An evaluation of this program found that its effectiveness was hampered by poor execution and a lack of quality materials in the national languages (Couralet, 2009). Since then, the government has partnered with Ecole et Langues Nationales en Afrique (ELAN, Education in African Languages), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF, International Organisation of the Francophonie) in a program that uses national languages and French in 30 classrooms. In addition, some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) have developed bilingual education programs with the consent of the Ministry of Education (MOE). One example is a program by the NGO Associates in Research and Education for Development (ARED) currently operating in more than 200 classrooms in French and Wolof or Pulaar (M. Ly, personal communication, December 15, 2015). Another example is Education Multi-Langue (EMiLe), which uses French and Serer-Sine in 12 public or Catholic schools and is operated by the Office National des Examens et Concours du Superieur (ONECS, National Office of the Catholic Teaching of Senegal) with support from SIL Senegal. Moreover, some NGOs, such as Tostan, which is focused on community empowerment, have performed extensive work in adult literacy in national languages. All of these NGOs have developed their own instructional materials (RTI International, 2015). Outside of these relatively isolated efforts, French remains as the primary language of instruction (LOI) in the formal education sector, and the official curriculum provides only for French beginning from Primary Grade 1 (Leclerc, 2015; RTI International, 2015; DeStefano et al., 204 DERP in Africa—Reading Materials Survey Final Report 2009). A 2009 study based on classroom observations in 50 schools in 11 regions found that teachers used French as the LOI more than 95 percent of the time (Varly, 2010). Although a variety of languages are spoken in each region, individual schools typically have only one predominant language used by children in and out of school. This language is usually Wolof in multilingual or urban environments and a smaller regional language is used in rural settings. However, literacy campaigns in Wolof among nonnative speakers have met with some resistance because the dominance of Wolof is perceived as a threat to the other languages that have, in principle, the same legal status and rights (Fall, 2014). 2. Data Collection During the planning stage, it was confirmed that any materials carried by publishers’ subsidiaries located outside the capital could also be accessed within the capital, thereby making visits to these subsidiaries unnecessary, with rare exceptions. A total of 460 titles were surveyed, mostly in Dakar. The data collectors obtained an overwhelming majority of books (437 [95 percent]) from the publishers, most often at the offices of FBOs with well-maintained libraries. 3. Findings A. Availability of Materials for Early Grade Reading in Senegalese Languages Materials by Language In Senegal, 460 titles were surveyed in 18 known Senegalese languages and two European languages (French and English). Table H-1 shows the number of titles surveyed by language. The data collectors found the greatest number of titles (122 [27 percent]) in Serer-Sine, with an estimated 1.4 million first language speakers and the third largest language group after Wolof and
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