By: Manos Antoninis, Director, GEM Report
The Yidan Prize has established itself over the last 10 years in a competitive field as a respected and coveted education award. The prize, which bears the name of Charles CHEN Yidan, a core founder of the Chinese internet giant Tencent, aims to ‘recognize the brightest minds in education and build a community around them’. It is offered to two categories: researchers for their work in ‘learning sciences or effective education policy’ (‘research’); and leaders for their ‘innovative ideas and interventions that make quality education more accessible to all’ (‘development’).
The GEM Report and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics are collaborating with Professor Wolfgang Lutz, distinguished scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and 2024 Yidan Prize for Education Research laureate. Professor Lutz is pooling a part of the research prize with our resources to develop better estimation models and improve understanding of demography in education statistics.
The 2025 Yidan Prize for Education Development laureate, Mamadou Amadou Ly, the latest in a series of thoroughly reviewed and impeccable choices, was the first West African to be recognized with the prize. Mr Ly is the Executive Director of Associates in Research and Education for Development (ARED) a non-governmental organization in Senegal – and now also active in neighbouring Gambia and Mauritania as well as other West African countries. He has championed teaching in languages children know, by far the largest educational challenge in Africa’s human development and yet one that rarely features in national or continental discussions.
The occasion gave the Yidan Prize Foundation the opportunity to organize its first ever Conference in Africa – from June 29 to July 1 in Dakar – to celebrate its laureate but also to mobilize the community of those engaged in Africa’s educational development. The GEM Report was invited to add its voice to the cause that decided this year’s Yidan Prize in the development category: the use of African languages for teaching. I was honoured to share the stage with Mr Ly and Armando Ali, Chief Executive Officer of People’s Action for Learning Network in one of the panels.
Language is an excellent example of where the logic of ‘what works’ falls through and where the need to focus on ‘what matters’ emerges clearly. Scientific evidence is indisputable – if self-evident – about the importance of teaching children in their home language. Africa is by far the region where children have the lowest chance (20%) to be taught in a language they speak at home. In no other region of the world are children as disadvantaged. Among 100 countries with data, 20 of the 22 African countries with data were at the bottom of the distribution. Only in Gabon and Malawi were at least two thirds of children fortunate enough to be taught in their home language.
Percentage of primary school students whose home language is used for instruction, by location
Source: 2025 Spotlight report on foundational learning in Africa.
In a survey of 60 primary schools that we carried out in five African countries in 2025, we found that African languages were spoken in 65% of homes in Cameroon, but only 2% of classes. In Côte d’Ivoire, French was used in all classrooms, while only 8% spoke it at home. In Morocco, 91% of students speak Darija Arabic or Amazigh at home, but neither is used in classrooms. Only in Zimbabwe was Shona, Ndebele or Venda used in 70% of classrooms.
Since 2022, in the three cycles of our Spotlight series on foundational learning in Africa, a partnership with the African Union, we have consistently included a key recommendation: teach all students in the language they speak at home. We have done so in full awareness that, strictly speaking, this is not realistic proposition. The linguistic landscape is changing quickly through mixed marriages and migration to the cities. But it is a safer and clearer guidance for action than the inaction that has condemned two generations of African children to illiteracy.
A policy that favours children’s languages is a precondition for equity, justice and inclusion. In Togo, 39% of children reached minimum proficiency in reading, but only 7% of children in the poorest quintile who did not speak the language of instruction. It is also fundamental for national emancipation, individual dignity and cultural expression. The explicit recommendation reminds African governments of the need to create the conditions that will allow home languages to be used in classrooms – through investment in textbooks, pedagogies, teacher education and assessment. It is also a reminder that such change takes time, especially building a sense of pride in populations that harbour a flawed belief that teaching through the medium of English, French or Portuguese is necessary for children’s future opportunities.
For example, 39% of primary school principals in Cameroon agreed with the national policy, which officially encourages national languages up to grade 4, but another 56% admitted it was hard to implement (and as many as 66% in urban areas) even though 74% of principals spoke the students’ language. In Côte d’Ivoire, only 22% of principals agreed with policy and 30% disagreed, perhaps a natural consequence of the fact that only 33% of principals spoke the students’ language.
As part of the 2027 GEM Report on quality and learning, the Spotlight report in 2028 will focus on the language of instruction in Africa. It will explore what evidence other than impact on learning can mobilize decision makers to prioritize home languages. It will also ask why some countries move from policy to practice, while others reverse course (and what lessons are to be derived), how governments can be supported to plan and implement realistic and effective language policies, and how donors can be encouraged to balance their interventions with policy-aligned language components.
The emphasis on ‘what works’ has shifted attention to band-aid solutions, but the fundamental health of an education system depends on its inclusiveness. It is to the Yidan Prize Foundation’s credit that it has been bold to bring the issue of language to attention at a time when some African countries are reversing gear. Yet praise can also go to the government that has been responsive to ARED’s initiatives.
