By Medadi Ssentanda and Judith Nakayiza. Private schools are becoming ubiquitous across Africa. Research has shown that their growth, although it has positive effects, is also problematic because many private schools are being set up without proper policy guidelines. More...

By Marco Tamburelli. It is now well known that growing up with two or more languages brings a wealth of cognitive advantages. Multilingualism is not only a laudable achievement in a tolerant society, it is also of great social benefit to individuals. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that bilinguals are better at focusing their attention, they are less easily distracted, they have increased mental flexibility, and show slower rates of mental decline in old age.
It is therefore surprising to see that some European governments and their mainstream media – for example in France and Italy – are hostile to the idea of encouraging multilingualism, and sometimes even to the idea that Europeans should be allowed to be publicly bilingual. More...

By Frank Monaghan. In a recent speech outlining Britain’s anti-extremism strategy entitled A Stronger Britain, Built On Our Values, the home secretary, Theresa May, identified five “British values” that “are the means by which we have made our multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious society succeed”. More...

By Simon Harrison and Ellen Hurst. Every year hundreds of thousands of applicants from China, Brazil, Angola, Iran and other non-English speaking countries vie fiercely for places on universities’ English for Academic Purposes courses. They know that successfully completing these programmes will help them get into universities around the world that use English as their medium of instruction. More...