O Ensino Bilíngue em Moçambique: uma análise sociológica da influência do contexto e das origens sociais dos alunos no seu desempenho escolar na EPC Lussa, Distrito de Gurúe, Província da Zambézia

Abstract

Bilingual education was introduced in the basic education in Mozambique in 2004, with the aim of ensuring the fast learning of non-Portuguese speaking children living in rural areas, as well as ensuring the appreciation of the mother tongues. Monolingual education (in Portuguese) persists in cities and towns with the aim of strengthening national unity in a multilingual context. In other words, those born and raised in cities should study in Portuguese to strengthen national unity, while those born and raised in rural areas should study in their mother tongues as a way of enhancing them. Objectives: The objective of this study was to “analyze the influence of social contexts and origins on the school performance of sixth and seventh graders of bilingual education in comparison to those of the monolingual in EPC Lussa in Mathematics and Portuguese”. Methodology: 90 EPC Lussa students were interviewed, 2 teachers, 1 bilingual teaching technique, 30 parents and guardians of these children and the director of school to seek both the factors of the social context and those of social origin, that favor or not the school performance between these two groups of students. Results: From the results obtained, it was possible to verify that monolingual students have a positive educational achievement when compared with students from bilingual education. The factors that explain these differences have to do with the school environment experienced by these two groups of students and the composition of the household between the two groups of students. However, the gap of the difference is not large due to the common factors between the two groups of students such as their primary socialization, the places they go often besides of school, and the level of education and professional occupation of their parents.