Speaking recently in local media, Daouda Ndiaye who has a PhD in Education, said local languages had become “victims of an institutional system that gives prominence to the French language.”
“Our national languages are sometimes considered as dialects and in popular understanding, a dialect is a language that has lost its social status,” he added.
“In Senegal, there has been classification of languages in the academic programs and if we want to make our languages vectors of development, we must reorganize our education policies,” Ndiaye added.
He said the country should emulate countries like Korea or China which developed with their own languages, while also opening up to other languages in the world.
On his part, Mame Ali Konte, a journalist who specializes in education matters, said “although national languages are carriers of culture, there’s an impression in Senegal that they have been forgotten.”
“Almost all languages of learning are borrowed languages and we do not use our own languages in the universities,” he regretted.
“Until now, Africa in general and Senegal in particular, has not built its development around national languages,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary in charge of Literacy and Promotion of National Languages Youssou Toure said there’s need to document the over 30 local languages spoken in Senegal.
“Local languages should occupy a special place in our education system just like English, Arabic and French,” he said.
“National languages are only used in the first year of elementary school, but we must go beyond the elementary level,” added Rokhaya Niang, a director in the ministry of Literacy and Promotion of National Languages. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
