Part I.pdf - MTB-MLE Network

It is important that the programme goals are explicitly stated in order for evaluators to have a basisfor identifying the achievement of programme goals. Both the long-term and short-term impact ofmultilingual education programmes need to be demonstrated. Can the learners apply the informationand skills learned within the programme to their daily lives? Are there demonstrable advantagesto programmes where the learner begins to study in their mother tongue, transitioning into otherlanguages of education?Governments need evidence of programme effectiveness before they will replicate the pilotprogrammes, and expand to different areas and language communities. It seems that somegovernments are sceptical that initial mother tongue education actually provides the foundation forbetter quality basic education. There appears to be the need to demonstrate that a structuredmultilingual approach can be more effective than a national language only approach.However, it may be that there would need to be an experimental design with both an experimentaland control group in order to provide valid evidence of programme effectiveness. There will alsoneed to be a baseline study of the educational environment in which the multilingual education istaking place. It was suggested during the workshop that UNESCO should implement a longitudinalstudy of the programmes in which the pilot multilingual education projects are taking place in orderthat systematic evidence of the effectiveness of multilingual education can be gathered.It was emphasised that it is important todistinguish between mother tongue education– teaching learners to read and write in theirmother tongue – and the strategies of bilingualor multilingual education where the learnersbegin their literacy education in their mothertongue but, through a structured approach,become competent users of both their mothertongue and the national and/or internationallanguages of education in their country.60