In the 1970s the newly independent Seychelles government took the landmark decision to make
Seychellois Creole (SC) an official language. The Seychelles thus became the first
Creole-speaking country worldwide to give its Creole the status of a national language and to
use it as a medium of instruction. The decision to use SC in the school system has resulted in
many positive developments such as increasing rates in public literacy. Despite these advances
there are many critics who contend that formal instruction in SC interferes with the speedy and
necessary acquisition of English and French which are internationally associated with
socio-economic power and prestige. This book assesses the attitudes of SC speakers towards
their mother tongue in relation to the colonial history of the country. Its objectives are
twofold: firstly to shed light upon the attitudes which modern Seychellois hold towards their
mother tongue and its use in the education system and secondly to demonstrate how these
attitudes may affect the achievement of the government's educational agenda. The findings of
this book are directly relevant for other investigators interested in globalization
multilingual education pluriliteracy minority language maintenance language policy and
teacher training. Moreover the implications of this research are applicable to other
post-colonial settings throughout Africa Asia Europe and the Americas where the pursuit of
sensitive yet effective multilingual educational policies remains acute.
