Language use in education and human capital formation: Evidence from the Ethiopian educational reform

• Published in: World development Vol. 98; pp. 195 - 213
• Main Author: Ramachandran, Rajesh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2017; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Access; Africa; Capital formation; Education; Education policy; Education reform; Elementary schools; Ethiopia; Ethnic groups; Ethnicity; Family planning; Human capital; Information sources; Language; language of instruction; Language policy; Language shift; Language usage; Languages; Leaflets; Minority & ethnic groups; Native language; Native language instruction; Policy making; Readership; Regions; Social factors; Social interaction; Social interactions; Teaching; Ethiopia; human capital; Ethiopia; language of instruction; Africa; education policy
• ISSN: 0305-750X; 1873-5991
• DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.04.029

•Explores the role of language as a key input into the process of student learning.•Provides causal estimates of mother tongue schooling on indicators of human capital.•Mother tongue instruction increases the probability of being able to read an entire sentence by 40%.•It increases completed years of schooling by 0.65years and the probability of completing primary schooling by 5•It increases newspaper readership by 25%. In 1994, Ethiopia introduced mother tongue instruction in primary schooling for the largest ethnic group in the country. Combining data from before and after the policy change, from the regions that gain access to mother tongue schooling, along with the regions and ethnic groups that face no change in language policy, I estimate the effect of mother tongue instruction on human capital formation. The results show that access to mother tongue schooling increases the ability to read by 40%. Moreover, it increases the completed years of schooling by more than half a year, and the probability of completing primary schooling by five percentage points. The ability to read by permitting access to printed sources of information, increases newspaper readership by around 25% and makes it 17% points more likely that individuals report using pamphlets, posters or leaflets as a source of information about family planning. My preferred interpretation of the results is that provision of schooling in a language spoken at home, and used for social interactions, reduces the cost and increases the efficiency of learning. The result highlights the use of non-native languages, an almost ubiquitous practice in Sub-Saharan Africa, as a potentially important factor underlying the large educational failures in this part of the world.