Producing educational materials in local languages: costs from Guatemala and Senegal

This paper examines production costs of local language materials, budgetary implications of such programs and cost-saving strategies that have and can be usefully employed in Guatemala and Senegal. Information from Guatemala indicates that investments in bilingual education programs are time-intensi ve but not prohibitive. The Senegal case study estimates the impact on the unit cost of local language materials if production is expanded to include all potential students in two neighboring countries, Senegal and The Gambia , that share a common local language. Results indicate that inter-country c ooperation is beneficial, especially when factoring in demand constraints i n any single country. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.