The aspiration to ensure that girls can access, continue in, and benefit from, education is a global priority and part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, though largely separately from the consideration of challenges faced by girls in education, global institutions are increasingly taking a public stance on the importance of language-of-instruction (LoI) policy for inclusive, quality education, asserting that learners should be taught using a language they understand. With evidence from Rwanda, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sierra Leone and Egypt, this policy brief demonstrates that these two issues cannot continue to be considered separately. Rather, LoI must be considered as a policy priority if we are to enable all girls to access and progress in quality, equitable education. Although the LoI policies differ across the countries included in this policy brief, the introduction of an unfamiliar LoI is consistently shown to be a barrier to learning. This is supported by a broad evidence base from across Sub-Saharan Africa, where the World Bank have estimated that as many as 80% of learners do not have access to learning in a language they know best.

Lizzi O. Milligan and Laela Adamson Dr Lizzi O. Milligan is a Reader in the Department of Education at the University of Bath where her research and teaching focuses on education and social justice, with a particular focus on the use of English as a Medium of basic education in low-income countries. She was the principal investigator of the ESRC project: A case study of girls' education experiences in English medium Rwandan basic education (ES/S001972/1). Dr Laela Adamson is an ESRC postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Bath. Her fellowship – Connecting knowledge(s) about language, learning and social justice in education (ES/W005484/1) – builds upon her PhD from the UCL Institute of Education where she focused on capabilities and language in Tanzanian secondary schools.