Africa looks to nonformal education in the vernacular

With formal education systems crumbling in much of sub-Saharan Africa, educators are looking more to informal systems of education taught in local languages. “Every child and adult should be able learn in their own language, especially in the face of staggering failure rates from the French education system,” said Sonja Diallo, director of Associates in Research and Education for Development (ARED), a nonprofit group based in Senegal that promotes learning in African languages. About 75% of children fail the seventh grade entrance exam and are forced out of the system, she said, and learning in a foreign language is a big part of the problem. Read about the problem at IRIN News.