Challenges of mathematics education in a multilingual post-colonial context: The case of Suriname

The objectives of this paper are to deepen insight into Suriname’s linguistic landscape and to emphasize the need for plurilingual and intercultural education. We place the debate in the context of international legal obligations of Suriname which approved the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007). This declaration includes the right of indigenous peoples to provide education in their own language in accordance with their traditions. We present the results of a pilot study in which we examined whether the language of assessment influences performance scores of young indigenous children in mathematics in order to determine the role of dual language support at primary school level in Suriname. Our findings suggest that the language used in the test significantly influences the performance on the test. Given the current high academic dropout rate in Suriname, in particular in the rural areas, these results are decidedly relevant. We discuss the potential didactic implications of these results for primary education in Suriname