ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the discourses and representations surrounding the implementation, in Benin, of the ELAN programme, an initiative led by the International Organisation of the Francophonie, aiming at supporting the introduction of national languages into school curricula in several sub-saharan African countries. It shows how the programme and its objectives are the object of multiple interpretations by the different actors involved, oscillating, broadly speaking, between politicisation and depoliticisation, between continuity and rupture with the country's previous language-in-education policies. These different readings point to current issues related to languages and education in post-colonial Benin. In a broader way, they also highlight the changes in the links between school, language, and national identity, in a context where educational policies are increasingly shaped by international actors.
