ABSTRACT
In many countries there was a multiplicity of African languages which made the choice of a vernacular difficult for educational purposes. In any case, for most parents English was the prestige language they wished their children to acquire and any education which did not lead to its early acquisition was often regarded as second best and even an attempt to hold the back Africans from advancement. At the same time English is being taught as a subject by means of courses and readers that are generally unsuitable in that they are based on structural criteria largely unrelated to the children’s needs. Such a programme would also require the same amount of the supervision and control that the English medium schemes have had. This would help to meet the need for literacy in an African language and a sound basic education.
