EPB

The Ecole Primaire Bilingue (EPB) offers solutions to the linguistic constraints facing basic education in the multilingual context of Burkina Faso. It involves the use of national languages to facilitate children’s learning and improve their academic performance.

Bilingual elementary school are the second link in the multilingual educational continuum, which begins with pre-schools (Espaces d’éveil éducatif – 3 E) and ends with specific multilingual colleges (Collèges multilingues spécifiques – CMS), the 3rd level from 6th to 3rd grade.

Objectives

• propose solutions to the linguistic constraints facing basic education in Burkina’s multilingual context;
• to enable students to use and enhance their knowledge of a national language, and to use their literacy skills in that language to train themselves;
• acquire modern knowledge and learn French (international language and official language of Burkina Faso);
• combine the act of learning with the act of producing, to prepare children to become conscious and motivated players in local, regional and national development;
• Reconciling the school with the environment by integrating positive local cultural values and involving the surrounding community;
• promote national languages and literacy in these languages, and minimize school wastage.

Prerequisites for implementing the approach

• Approach implemented by community demand for the implementation of the approach ;
• Prospecting and social negotiation missions ;
• Participation of the beneficiary community in the implementation of activities specific to bilingual education, such as indigenous knowledge, production and cultural activities.

Implementation process

• Application to open a bilingual school or convert a traditional monolingual school into a bilingual school;
• Two canvassing and social negotiation missions involving all the MENAPLN players concerned, from the technical departments to the decentralized technical structures and resource persons;
• Establishment of a SMC and identification of resource persons to implement specific activities;
• Training for teachers assigned by the school administration ;
• Class opens the following school year ;
• Follow-up and advice specific to EPBs, taking into account bilingualism, production activities, cultural activities and community participation;
• Annual capacity-building for teachers, depending on the class they teach.

Stakeholders in the implementation

• Trained teachers of bilingual classes;
• Local resource persons identified for the specificities of bi-plurilingual education ;
• The head of the basic education district to which the EPB belongs;
• Leading the multilingual education continuum ;
• Solidar Suisse more specifically for technical support to the MENAPLN and more directly for the bilingual schools run by the Catholic Church in collaboration with the Secrétariat national de l’éducation catholique (SNEC).

Direct beneficiaries

• School-age children whose parents have opted for a bilingual French/national language education for their children;
• EPB teachers;
• Pedagogical supervisors who are trained in the approach.

Indirect beneficiaries

• Parents and the entire local educational community;
• MENAPLN central, technical and deconcentrated structures concerned;
• The National Secretariat for Catholic Education (SNEC).
• National training institutes for educational staff ;
• Ecole normale supérieure (ENS);
• The world of linguistic and educational science researchers.

Advantages :

• Reducing schooling time by one year;
• The link between teaching, production and culture ;
• Students’ internal and external performance;
• Bilingual teaching promotes a better understanding of the content of subjects taught in both national languages and French;
• Bilingual education makes it possible to combine the act of learning with the act of producing, which prepares children to become players in local, regional and national development;
• Pupils from bilingual schools are able to continue their secondary education at Collèges d’Enseignement Général (CEG) or Collèges Multilingues Spécifiques (CMS), and later at university;
• Bilingual education, with the integration of local culture into teaching, enables students to develop cultural skills that can be used in working life;
• Bilingual education contributes to the enhancement of national languages.