ISSUES IN EDUCATION POLICIES IN THE CONTEXT OF WEST AFRICA

Abstract

This paper discusses the problems of education policies in West African schools. In any society, language is a means that facilitates the communication within the community for understanding each other. Presently, the education policies inherited from colonization constitute a great problem in West African teaching system. Education policies do not take into account the realities of the population in terms of initiating the national languages in the western education system. The aim of the paper is to point out the problems of education policies that influence the education system in West Africa. The approach to analysis is partly qualitative and partly quantitative. A questionnaire was used to gather information on the issues in education policies in West African teaching context. The main findings show that most of the western education policies do not consider native languages in the educational system of West Africa which downgrade the students’ levels of learning.