Blueprint for the Use of Evidence in Language of Instruction Decisions (BUILD)
Nearly all children in low- and middle-income countries are learning to read and do math in bilingual or multilingual educational settings. The Blueprint for the Use of evidence In Language of instruction Decisions (BUILD) provides evidence-based and politically workable roadmaps to help decision-makers strengthen key components of the education systems to support bilingual learning outcomes.
AIR developed and tested BUILD in Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Senegal.
The BUILD Framework
The BUILD framework answers a series of empirical questions across various components of education systems in order to provide holistic blueprints for multilingual education decision-making.
Côte d’Ivoire
Currently, French is the sole language of instruction for schools across Côte d’Ivoire. Some notable bilingual education experiments have taken place in the country beginning in the 1980s and there is a growing shift in attitude among Ivorian decision-makers towards integrating local languages into the school system more systematically.
As the ministry of education aims to expand its pilots, the BUILD project identifies the following priorities for building an effective bilingual education system:
- Align the language of instruction with the languages students and teachers know.
- Design pathways for learners to transition from national languages to French.
- Provide ongoing professional development for teachers related to bilingual instruction.
- Include language-related indicators in existing education monitoring systems.
Read the full report on Côte d’Ivoire.
Read the evidence brief.
Mozambique
Mozambique has sustained a national commitment to bilingual education over several decades. The country has advanced from pilot projects to a formal, nationwide model in which children learn in a Mozambican language in Grades 1–3. Students transition gradually to Portuguese in Grades 4–6 on a subject‑by‑subject basis and continue studying the Mozambican language as a subject through the end of primary school.
Yet, learning data show that many students continue to fall short of foundational literacy benchmarks, highlighting the urgent need to translate bilingual education policy into stronger, more consistent classroom practice.
For the BUILD report for Mozambique, our team analyzed policy documents, learning data, and stakeholder perspectives to identify four priority ways that Mozambique can strengthen bilingual programming and improve foundational learning outcomes at scale:
- Address system-wide language mismatch.
- Develop high-quality teaching and learning materials for biliteracy.
- Align teacher training and professional development with the science of bilingual reading.
- Build robust bilingual data systems to monitor implementation and outcomes.
Read the full report on Mozambique.
Read the evidence brief.
Rwanda
Rwanda’s education system is linguistically distinctive in that nearly all learners speak Kinyarwanda, but English has been the official language of instruction across primary and secondary education since 2019. Evidence from national assessments and stakeholder consultations indicates that this transition to English from French (a previous language of instruction) has created persistent challenges for both learners and teachers.
At this critical time in Rwanda’s education reform, the BUILD project seeks to support national leaders and technical stakeholders in using evidence more systematically to guide language-of-instruction decisions.
AIR’s analysis identifies the following priority areas to do so:
- Align language policy, teacher capacity, and classroom practice.
- Design explicit bilingual instructional pathways for English-medium learning.
- Support teachers through sustained, practice-embedded professional development.
- Build language-sensitive monitoring, evaluation, and research systems.
Read the full report on Rwanda.
Read the evidence brief.
Senegal
Senegal is at a pivotal moment in transforming its education system. Recent national reforms such as the Modèle Harmonisé de l’Enseignement Bilingue au Sénégal (Harmonized Model for Bilingual Teaching in Senegal, or MOHEBS) have elevated bilingual learning as a central priority, reflecting a nationwide commitment to improving early learning outcomes.
The BUILD report identifies four priority ways that Senegal can build on recent reforms and accelerate learning gains:
- Integrate language into teaching and teacher deployment.
- Strengthen the transition to French.
- Support teachers through sustained professional development.
- Integrate bilingual goals into monitoring, evaluation, and research systems.
