ABSTRACT
Language education policy development and implementation in contexts where Creoles are spoken by the majority of the population and a European language is the official language has been fraught with challenges dating back to the colonial period. This chapter discusses Jamaica as an illustrative case of the challenges of language education policy development and implementation in a Creole-speaking environment in the postcolonial era. Most language education policies in Creole contexts were originally developed during the colonial period with the purpose of promoting the colonial language and delegitimizing, if not eradicating, the mass vernacular. The colonial history of plantation slavery in Jamaica left a rigidly stratified society in which the wealthy, minority upper class had access to better education and upward mobility, whereas the poor masses were deprived of access to education beyond the basic level. The language-as-problem orientation in Creole contexts has been the driving force in language education policy development, as exemplified in Jamaica.
