Several attributes contribute to the language
deficit in Cambodia and other developing countries.
[...]
Third, the policymakers in education tend to
function in a developed language (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, German,
etc), usually English, and thus their entry point into education policymaking
is too advanced.
One of the development sectors normally associated
with language is formal education.
Currently, when education policies in developing countries like Cambodia
are developed and implemented they tend to focus on physical infrastructure of
schools, books, transportation or access for girls and teachers’ salaries. What is completely taken for granted and
amiss is the focus on functionality, comprehension, and ease of reading of the
local language.
Understandably so.
The local elites who are policymakers tend to be knowledgeable of either
English or French, and unconsciously, fluidly use the second more developed
language for higher education and refined thinking. In many of these societies, Cambodia being
the prime example, it is rare to have an educated Cambodian (or Laotian, etc)
who only knows her respective language.
Higher education is always reliant on a second, more developed language.
Similarly, the donor representatives of USAID, the
European Commission, UNICEF, UNESCO, et al, tend to have multiple
advance degrees and be fluent in at least English, French or both. Their entry point to the issue of basic
education is within their developed language context of 600 years of
punctuation and text development, long enough for all of them to believe that
punctuation has always existed.
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