Language in Education Policy in Kenya

What Place for Foreign Languages?

Abstract

Abstract: The subject of Language-in-education policies has generated rigorous debate and is an issue of concern to education stakeholders and researchers in education. Despite markedly disparate views, there is an uneasy agreement that for education systems the world over, languages play a pivotal role in the teaching and learning processes. This paper provides a critical appraisal of the general language-in-education-policy in Kenya (hereinafter, LiEP). It then briefly and singularly examines foreign language-in-education policies (hereinafter, FLiEP) around the world and gives a particular focus on the situation of French-language education in Kenya. The paper determines that foreign language-in-education policies in Kenya’s education system are admittedly silent or not clearly spelt-out. The resultant effect on foreign language education (hereinafter, FLE) in Kenyan schools is that its growth has not been methodologically planned but has “self-developed” in response and in line with socio-economic, political, and educational transformations in the country. To bring this to the fore, this paper presents explanatory research by critically examining Kenya`s LiEP from independence to present, their interpretations and implementations, in reference to foreign language education. Literature informing this paper was sourced from various documents from library search, online sources and Ministry of Education Kenya documents, that is, Sessional Papers.

 Keywords: Foreign language-in-education policy, Kenya, language policy