L’enseignement bi-plurilingue au Mali : les obstacles sociaux et politiques à sa mise en œuvre

Abstract

This study, grounded in critical sociolinguistics (Heller, 2021) and drawing on the work of linguistic postcolonialism (Boyer, 2014), analyzes the obstacles to the widespread implementation of bilingual and multilingual education in Mali, despite a structured legal framework and decades of experimentation. The qualitative analysis of secondary data, consisting of official texts, scientific literature, and media discourse, reveals that three factors combine to explain this failure: first, the rejection of national languages ​​by parents, especially the most educated, who see them as a source of inequality contributing to social reproduction; second, the fear among national authorities of promoting a single language at the expense of others, at the risk of exacerbating intercommunal conflicts; and finally, the persistence of the myth that African languages ​​are not suitable for scientific purposes. All of this contributes to the fragility of the Malian education system, hampered by internal paradoxes such as the absence of national language curricula in the initial training of teacher training institutes, the lack of teaching materials in national languages, and the dependence on funding from Technical and Financial Partners. This dynamic explains why most schools with bilingual curricula have reverted to the traditional French-language system. If these obstacles persist, including the ambivalent pronouncements of policymakers, identity-based fears, and budgetary priorities, the widespread adoption of a bilingual and multilingual curriculum will remain unattainable. An inclusive overhaul of language and education policies is essential to reconcile linguistic pluralism with pedagogical requirements; otherwise, Mali will continue to oscillate between professed commitment and practical inaction.