Effects of policy on English-medium instruction in Africa

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of policy on English‐medium instruction in public schools in Africa. The focus is on illiteracy and elite closure. It argues that policy on English‐medium instruction has failed to achieve the key objectives around which it was adopted: spread literacy among and create opportunities for the populace to participate in the socioeconomic and political development of the continent. The paper calls for an inclusive language policy that promotes a dual‐medium educational system including an English‐medium stream and a vernacular‐medium stream to achieve the purported objectives. It warns that for vernacular‐medium education to be accepted by the population, however, it must be vested with comparable material returns that are currently associated only with English‐medium education.