1. Language-in-education policies in Southeast Asia
Kimmo Kosonen
Consultant to SEAMEO
SIL International & Payap University
Chiang Mai, Thailand

4. Many ethnolinguistic minority (and other) groups face a ‘language barrier’ in education
UNESCO, UNICEF and many NGOs strongly support the use of learners’ first language as the initial media of instruction.
See e.g.
UNESCO: Education in Multilingual World
UNICEF: Ensuring the Rights of Indigenous Children.

5. ‘Language barrier’ – Quality
Thailand – surveys on educational quality
Minority children with poor Standard Thai skills had 50% lower learning results than Thai-speaking students in all main subjects
About 13% of Grade 2 students could not read or write Standard Thai
Over 25% of students in 10 education areas have problems in reading and writing Standard Thai
A reason: teachers and students speak different languages

6. Language-in-education policy & practice:
Language policy
Legislation on (and/or practice of) the use of languages in a society
Language-in-education policy & practice:
Language (or medium) of instruction (LoI)
Language of literacy

7. Number of Languages spoken in Asia
Country Languages
Indonesia 742
India 427
China 241
Philippines 180
Malaysia 147
Nepal 125
Myanmar 113
Vietnam 104
Lao PDR 86
Thailand 83
Pakistan 77
Iran 75
Afghanistan 51
Bangladesh 46
Kazakhstan 43
Country Languages
Uzbekistan 40
Tajikistan 33
Kyrgyzstan 32
Bhutan 31
Singapore 30
Turkmenistan 27
Cambodia 24
Timor Leste 19
Brunei 19
Japan 16
Mongolia 15
Sri Lanka
Korea, South 2
Maldives 2
Korea, North 1
TOTAL: ~ 2200
Source: Ethnologue (2005)
(30 countries)

8. National or Official Languages in Asia
Portuguese,
Russian 2,
Sanskrit,
Santhali,
Sindhi 2,
Sinhala,
Southern Pashto,
Tajiki,
Tamil 2,
Telugu,
Tetum,
Thai,
Turkmen,
Urdu 2,
Vietnamese,
Western Farsi
Assamese,
Bengali (Bangla) 2,
Bodo,
Dogri,
Dzongkha,
Eastern Farsi (Dari),
Eastern Punjabi,
English 4 (1),
Filipino,
Gujarati,
Gurung,
Halh Mongolian,
Hindi,
Indonesian,
Japanese,
Kannada,
Kashmiri,
Kazakh,
Kirghiz,
Khmer,
Konkani,
Korean 2,
Lao,
Maithili,
Malay 3,
Malayalam,
Maldivian (Diwehi),
Mandarin Chinese 2,
Marathi,
Meitei,
Myanma,
Nepali 2,
Northern Uzbek,
Oriya,
(50 languages) (22 in India)
Source: Ethnologue (2005)

9. Few monolingual nations
Linguistic diversity is evident
Few monolingual nations
Many education systems use only one language

12. Official / national language
Country
Official / national language
Brunei Darussalam
Standard Malay, English
Cambodia
Khmer
Indonesia
Indonesian
Lao PDR
Lao
Malaysia
Malay
Myanmar
Burmese (Myanmar, Bamar)
Philippines
Filipino, English
Singapore
English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil
Thailand
Thai (de facto national language)
Timor Leste
Portuguese, Tetum (Eng. and Indo. working la)
Vietnam
Vietnamese

13. Country Minority languages in the Constitution
Brunei Darussalam
No (1959)
Cambodia
No (1993)
Indonesia
Yes (1945), RLs respected & preserved
Lao PDR
No (1991)
Malaysia
Yes (1957), preserve & sustain the use & study
Myanmar
Yes (1974), No (2008)
Philippines
Yes (1987), LLs auxiliary languages
Singapore
Yes (1965), preserve & sustain the use & study
Thailand
No (1997), No (2007)
Timor Leste
Yes (2002), Tetum & NLs valued & developed
Vietnam
No (1992)

14. Languages of Instruction
Country
Languages of Instruction
Brunei Darussalam
Malay, English
Cambodia
Khmer, 5 LLs
Indonesia
Indonesian
Lao PDR
Lao
Malaysia
Malay, English, Tamil, Mandarin, some LLs
Myanmar
Burmese
Philippines
Filipino, English, some LLs
Singapore
English
Thailand
Thai, some LLs
Timor Leste
Portuguese, Tetum
Vietnam
Vietnamese, some LLs

15. Local languages as medium of instruction - allowed/legal?
Country
Local languages as medium of instruction - allowed/legal?
Brunei Darussalam No
Cambodia
Yes
Indonesia
Lao PDR ?
Malaysia
Myanmar
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Timor Leste
? (KK: Likely yes)
Vietnam

16. Languages-in-education: SEA
National languages used as the main media
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore use several languages as media of instruction (including English)
Brunei, Laos and Singapore do not use local languages at all
Laos uses national language only
Myanmar has NFE in LLs by NGOs only
Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam have pilot MLE projects which use local languages
Cambodia, Thailand and Timor Leste reviewing their language-in-education policies (inclusion of local languages?)

17. Regional Trends in the Use of Local Languages in Education
Promising pilots in several SE Asian countries
Increased interest in the use of local languages by govt agencies, UN agencies, INGOs, local NGOs
Local languages used more in NFE than FE
Local languages used orally quite widely, even without official endorsement
NGOs provide more education in local languages than governments
Policies on paper vs. implementation & practice

18. Thank you!