Burkina Faso to extend bilingual education to 8,743 schools
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Aib
Burkina Faso plans to extend bilingual education to 8,743 schools in 2026-2027, compared with 955 during the pilot phase, according to director-general Tasseré Compaoré. The nationwide rollout will also train 11,731 teachers and 3,724 supervisors, using 13 national languages and French as the second language, AIB reports.
Burkina Faso is targeting 8,743 schools for the deployment of its bilingual and multilingual education programme during the 2026-2027 academic year, compared with 955 during the 2025-2026 pilot phase, according to objectives presented on 27 October in Bobo-Dioulasso by Tasseré Compaoré, director-general of access to pre-primary education and primary education.
The pilot phase covered 13 regions, 44 provinces and 362 basic education districts. It enabled 2,180 teachers and 925 education supervisors to be trained. For the nationwide rollout, Burkina Faso plans to train 11,731 teachers and 3,724 supervisors, using 13 national languages and French as the second language.
Basic Education Minister Jacques Sosthène Dingara presented these guidelines at a meeting with regional education stakeholders from Guiriko, devoted to implementing the reforms several weeks after the start of the school year. The programme will notably have to address shortages of teaching materials, continuing training needs and a lack of human and financial resources. The recommended measures include distributing textbooks and guides, strengthening school monitoring and raising community awareness.
