a mixture of opinion and a flurry of practical challenges, not least the issue of finding a sufficient number of fluent and literate MSA speakers to teach in schools across the country. The literacy rates in
both official languages are very low and few Chadians speak either language as their home language.
1.4 MTB-MLE in Chad
While the main emphasis on educational reform in recent years has been on bilingualism in official languages, many at the grassroots are calling for more attention to be given to MTB-MLE as an effective
means of helping children bridge the gap between the language they understand best and the official and foreign languages. Several small-scale experimental MTB-MLE programmes have been carried out
in Chad in recent years under the Support Programme for Educational Reform in Chad PARSET République du Tchad 2004 in conjunction with international NGOs. However, none of these projects
have transitioned to large-scale initiatives. In their evaluation report on the “Teaching in National Languages” component of the PARSET programme, Djarangar and Ahidjo 2011 outline the main
characteristics, results and challenges encountered. This programme adopted an early-exit model of MTB-MLE, focusing on Grades 1–3 of primary school with a short transition to L2 as MoI by Grade 4. By
the end of 2006, half way through the experimentation period, 135 schools in five language communities were involved Chadian Arabic, Maba, Massa, Moundang and Sar, 366 teachers and 40 other local
stakeholders had been trained, and teaching resources had been created and distributed in each language. Over 34,000 children in all had been impacted by the programme Djarangar and Ahidjo
2011:25.
In May 2007, half-way through the experimentation, the evaluation team undertook interviews with parents, teachers, and education authorities, who reported the following results:
• better acquisition of basic literacy skills, • ease of communication between children and their teacher, leading to less fear of going to
school, • use of more learner-centered, participative teaching methods,
• increased community parental involvement and interest in children’s education, • timely payment of school fees by parents because they see children learning,
• children sharing their learning at home with parents, brothers and sisters etc. resulting in
effective family learning, • less repetition of classes and lower drop-out rate,
• higher enrollment of girls in school, • better acquisition of L2 Djarangar and Ahidjo 2011:18–24.
However, the evaluators highlighted several challenges as follows: • lack of supervision in some branches,
• teachers’ lack of teaching competencies, • insufficient in-service training,
• teachers not being paid, • teacher strikes,
• teachers leaving during the school year, • teacher and pupil absences or irregular attendance,
• the late start to the school year in many rural areas, and lack of active interest among some
parents in their children’s education Djarangar and Ahidjo 2011:27–28.
Despite these challenges, evaluation tests revealed that children in experimental classes outperformed those in the control classes in all instances.
1.5 Impetus for this research
