An innovative “simultaneous” biliteracy program in Wolof or Pulaar alongside French has recently been piloted in Senegal by Associates in Research and Education for Development (ARED), a Senegalese NGO, in partnership with the Ministry of National Education (MEN). This program has influenced the country to consider adopting a “harmonized bilingual model” as national language-in-education policy.
M.A. student Jemima Douyon and I accompanied Professor Carol Benson to Dakar in July and August 2019 to collect further data, following up on Erina and Carol’s evaluation conducted in November 2018 in collaboration with Professor Mbacké Diagne from Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD). We focused on three aspects: the current state of language-in-education policy in the country; the design and functioning of the “simultaneous” biliteracy approach, which is uniquely in line with current research on multilingual education; and the historical work of advocates of bilingual education in Senegal. The TC team also explored collaborative research possibilities with UCAD and ARED and designed three internships for TC students. Over the course of ten days in the country, we held 14 meetings with stakeholders, including linguists, civil society organization leaders, university professors, bilingually trained teachers and inspectors, government officials and international organization representatives.