Are we listening to the language of our children?

There is an interesting development taking place in the Netherlands that should cause us on St. Maarten to reflect seriously on our own education system. Dutch primary schools are being encouraged to make greater room for the languages children actually speak at home, including Turkish, Polish, Arabic, English and regional languages. Teachers may even allow pupils to use their mother tongue to prepare for lessons or work through difficult material when doing so helps them understand the subject matter.

The significance of this should not be overlooked. In the Netherlands, where Dutch is the dominant language of society, education policymakers are increasingly recognising that the language a child brings from home can be an educational asset rather than an obstacle. That raises an important question for us on multilingual St. Maarten: are we embracing that same principle in the way we design and deliver education?

Our reality is multilingual

St. Maarten does not have one linguistic reality. We have schools where English is the language of instruction and schools where Dutch is the language of instruction. Our children come from homes where English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Dutch, French, Papiamentu and other languages are spoken. This diversity is not something that exists outside of our education system, it is sitting inside our classrooms every single day.

That is why I become concerned whenever the educational discussion seems to suggest that simply pushing more Dutch will automatically improve education. Dutch is important and has an important place within our education system, particularly because of our position as a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Our children should have every opportunity to learn Dutch and to learn it well. At the same time, education policy must first reflect the linguistic reality of St. Maarten and, above all, the educational needs of our children.

Fifty years of debate

Language in education is hardly a new issue for us. For more than half a century, St. Maarten has wrestled with questions surrounding language, curriculum and the educational needs of our children. As far back as the 1970s, our educational leadership was confronting these issues, and in 1986 St. Maarten and Saba signed protocols aimed at expanding English as the language of instruction.

Yet decades later, language remains a recurring debate, and that fact alone should tell us something. Perhaps we have spent too much time asking which language should have greater institutional importance and not enough time asking the question that should matter most: what approach produces the best educational outcomes for the St. Maarten child?

Start with the child

Answering that question requires us to move beyond politics, history and tradition and begin with the child sitting in the classroom. What language does that child speak at home? What language does the child understand best? How strong is that child's literacy? How can we use what the child already possesses linguistically to help that child acquire additional languages, knowledge and skills?

This is where the approach being discussed in the Netherlands becomes relevant. The principle is not that children should learn only in their home language. Rather, it recognises that what a child already knows linguistically can become a foundation upon which additional learning is built. A child's home language should not automatically be treated as something that must be overcome when that child enters the classroom. It can be used as part of the process of helping that child understand, develop and succeed.

Our ambition should be greater

This should not become another English-versus-Dutch debate because our ambition for education should be greater than choosing one language at the expense of another. We should support our English-language schools and our Dutch-language schools while strengthening the teaching of both English and Dutch. We should also create meaningful opportunities for our children to learn Spanish, French and other languages that are relevant to our Caribbean environment and to the wider world in which they will eventually study and work.

Our goal should be to produce highly literate, multilingual St. Maarteners who can read deeply, write effectively, think critically and communicate confidently wherever they choose to study, work or live. Multilingualism should be one of St. Maarten's educational strengths, but achieving that requires a change in how we think about language. A child's first language should not be seen as evidence of what that child lacks, but as evidence of what that child already possesses and what educators can build upon.

The lesson for St. Maarten

There is a certain irony in what is now happening in the Netherlands. Dutch schools are being encouraged to make room for Turkish, Polish, Arabic, English and other languages children bring from their homes into the classroom. Surely, on one of the most multicultural and multilingual islands in the Caribbean, we should be capable of embracing the same educational principle and adapting it to our own reality.

After more than 50 years of debating language in education, our policies should be driven by evidence, educational outcomes and the reality of our children, not simply institutional tradition. We should teach Dutch well, strengthen English, respect both our Dutch- and English-language instruction schools, recognise the other languages our children bring into the classroom and ensure that language becomes a bridge to learning rather than a barrier to it.

Ultimately, the most important question is not whether a school teaches in Dutch or English. The real measure must be whether the St. Maarten child is learning, progressing and succeeding. That should remain at the centre of every discussion about language and education.

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