Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea

African Studies Review, Apr 2003 by Woldemikael, Tekle M

Since at least 50 percent of the Eritrean population speaks Tigrinya as their mother tongue, it is to be expected that the Tigrinya-speakers would have the lion's share of students attending primary schools. But with 68 percent (370 out of 549) of the total number of schools teaching in Tigrinya in 1996-97, the absolute dominance of Tigrinya as a medium of instruction in Eritrean schools exceeded our expectations (table 3). This also meant that the Tigrinya speakers have made a remarkably successful switch from using Amharic as the language of instruction in primary education to using Tigrinya in their communities.

Because of the size of the Tigre-speaking community (31 percent of the population) and the long-term involvement of Tigre-speakers in the Eritrean nationalist struggle, one would have expected strong support for teaching in their mother tongue in predominantly Tigre-speaking areas. Tigre also was one of the first two languages to be introduced and used as a medium of instruction after 1976 in primary schools in the EPLF-controlled base area. The EPLF and the government of Eritrea have shown consistent commitment to developing Tigre as a language of instruction. Both have conducted seminars and public discussions to persuade Tigrespeakers to accept Tigre as a medium of instruction in primary schools in their communities. From 1977 to 1996, the EPLF and the government produced over forty teaching materials, including textbooks, for primary and adult schools, teachers' guides, and some general literature (Negusse Woldu 1996:1-12). The significance of their commitment becomes clear when we compare their efforts with that of the rival liberation front, the ELF. Eyewitnesses have informed me that the ELF banned teaching and writing in Tigre, and that it burned teaching texts that were produced by its cadres who were unaware of the organization's ban on the development of the language.3 It was very surprising, therefore, that only 5 percent of the schools (29 out of 549 schools) were using Tigre as a medium of instruction in 1995-96 and that in 1996-97 only a small number of children (3 percent, or 7139 students of the total number of 240,737 students) were learning in Tigre, as opposed to those taught in Tigrinya (82 percent, or 196,350 students) and in Arabic (12 percent, or 28,452 students in 20 percent of the schools) (tables 3 and 4).

Clearly many Tigre-speaking parents have chosen Arabic instead of Tigre for the primary education of their children. From 1993-94 to 1996-97, there has been an 8 percent growth of schools using Arabic, while those using Tigre have shown a growth of under 1 percent for the same period. As one of the Arabic panel members who himself was a Tigre-speaker stated, "We found people reject Tigre; they said no to Tigre or no to Nara.... They say we want schools in Arabic. The government policy is based on identity...." One reason for the rejection of Tigre may be its close affiliation to Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. Although Tigre is arguably the closest existing language to the Ge'ez language from which both are derived, I have found most Tigre speakers unaware of this close relationship. A number of Tigre-speaking informants have told me that the Tigre-speakers have been suspicious of the attempts to write their language in Ge'ez script, for they associate the Ge'ez script with Amharic. They view Amharic negatively, as a language of domination that they were forced to learn and speak until Ethiopia was defeated in 1991.