The legacy of colonial language policies and their impact on student learning: evidence from an experimental program in Cameroon
The relative educational returns on colonial versus indigenous language instruction in sub-Saharan countries have yet to be decisively estimated. To address this unanswered question, this paper provides an impact assessment of an experiment in Cameroon in which the first 3 years of schooling were co...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Sept 30, 2019
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| In: |
Economic development and cultural change
Year: 2019, Volume: 68, Issue: 1, Pages: 239-272 |
| ISSN: | 1539-2988 |
| DOI: | 10.1086/700617 |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Verlag, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1086/700617 Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/700617 
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| Author Notes: | David D. Laitin, Rajesh Ramachandran, Stephen L. Walter |
| Summary: | The relative educational returns on colonial versus indigenous language instruction in sub-Saharan countries have yet to be decisively estimated. To address this unanswered question, this paper provides an impact assessment of an experiment in Cameroon in which the first 3 years of schooling were conducted in a local language instead of in English. Test results in examinations in both English and math reveal that treated students exhibit gains of 1.1-1.4 of a standard deviation in grades 1 and 3 compared with the control students. It also increases the probability of being present in grades 3 and 5 by 22 and 14 percentage points, respectively. However, by the end of fifth grade, 2 years after reverting to the English stream, treated students still exhibit gains of 0.40-0.60 of a standard deviation, although the absolute scores for both groups are low enough to suggest limited learning is taking place. |
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| Item Description: | Gesehen am 28.11.2019 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1539-2988 |
| DOI: | 10.1086/700617 |