Educating for marginalization: Normative implications of the Malawian medium of instruction policy

In 2014 the Malawian Government amended its education policy to make English the sole medium of instruction from basic primary level to tertiary level. Prior to the amendment, the policy stated that the medium of instruction for the first four classes of basic education should be the dominant vernacular language in the local area, given Malawi's multilingualism. This paper critically examines the normative implications of the current policy. Using Seyla Benhabib's (2011) theory of communicative or concrete universalism, the article argues that this policy preserves and perpetuates a duo-pronged form of marginalization. In the first sense the policy marginalises the unprivileged majority students and communities for whom English is not even a second language, but also have almost non-existent opportunities for engaging the English language outside the school domain