In many countries children begin school in a language they do not speak at home.
The policy is usually defended on grounds of national and later economic access.
Both aims are real, and the evidence on the method is nonetheless consistent.
Children taught to read first in a language they understand learn to read faster.
They also the second language better, because reading transfers between languages.
is learned once; only the sounds and spellings have to be relearned.
A child struggling to decode an unfamiliar language is doing two hard things at the same time.
Many never recover, and the failure is recorded as a lack of ability.
Implementation is where policies have run into genuine difficulty.
Materials must exist in each language, and teachers must be where their language is spoken.
Neither is trivial in a country with forty languages and a centralised posting system.
Parents are also a real obstacle, and their reasoning is not irrational.
They observe that examinations, universities and jobs all use the national language.
A transition model answers this: first in the home language, then a planned shift.
Where it is funded properly, results in the national language are higher by the end of primary school than under .