Voices from the post-independence classroom

Abstract With its implementation as Namibia’s sole official language, English also became the only medium of instruction after mother tongue education during the first school years. This generated advantages as well as disadvantages, particularly in the educational sector, as English had – except in the northern regions – hardly been used in Namibia until 1990. This article discusses Namibia’s educational policy, assessing both quantitative and qualitative data on the use of English and home languages in the Namibian classroom. In this context, the results of a quantitative questionnaire study are triangulated with the analysis of qualitative interviews providing a more comprehensive view on the linguistic situation in (English) classrooms in post-Independence Namibia.