The country is a Francophone nation and has Malagasy and French as the official languages. Malagasy is the most popular language in Madagascar with the majority of Madagascar residents being conversant with the language. The constitution of Madagascar established Malagasy as one of the two official languages in the country, the other being French. However, the Constitution made no provisions concerning the official status of Malagasy language with the language maintaining its status albeit as a de facto.
The Constitution reinstated Malagasy as one of three official languages in Madagascar with the language also becoming the national language of the country. There were an estimated 18 million native Malagasy speakers in Madagascar in Malagasy is the Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language group. The language is more closely related to native languages spoken in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia and is distinct from native languages used in neighboring African countries such as Mozambique and South Africa.
While the majority of Malagasy speakers are found in Madagascar, a significant number of native speakers are also present in neighboring island nations such as Comoros and Reunion. For most of the next 40 years, former military man Didier Ratsiraka held power imposing his own brand of Christian-Marxism until his policies caused spectacular economic collapse. In the early s, a businessman and former mayor of Antananarivo — Marc Ravalomanana — took over the presidency after achieving a narrow electoral victory, which Ratsiraka initially refused to accept.
There followed seven years of impressive economic growth for Madagascar under Ravalomanana's leadership, accompanied by extensive development such as road building. The international community was impressed by the president's resolve to triple the protected areas of the country to around 10 per cent. Sadly, during his second term in office, he began to abuse his position for personal gain and public opinion turned against him.
Rajoelina successfully forced Ravalomanana into exile and appointed himself leader. Between and , Madagascar had no internationally recognised government. Most international aid was stopped, living standards across the country dropped, the economy backpedalled and the security situation worsened. Rajoelina's stated aim was to organise democratic elections, but it soon became clear that he had no intention of giving up power.
During those five years he dragged his feet and deliberately derailed plans each time election dates were set, while hurrying through constitutional changes that would favour him as a presidential candidate.
Eventually he realised that the international community would never accept him as rightful president, even if he were to win free and fair democratic elections. He decided to change tack and put forward a proxy candidate called Hery Rajaonarimampianina. Elections went ahead in late and Rajaonarimampianina won, having spent eye-watering sums — thought to have come from the sale of vast quantities of illegally logged rosewood timber to China — on campaigning.
The head of department, Samuel Razasiarison, says that young Malagasy only speak French during classes. He attributes the drop in the levels of French among young people to the country's political instability. When it comes to school education, there is no stability. President Didier Ratsiraka launched the policy of "malgachisation" at the end of the s until the mid 80s, which made Malagasy the language of instruction in schools and French a foreign language.
As a result, a whole generation of people didn't learn proficient French, including a whole generation of teachers. This in turn makes it difficult for some who enter higher education, which is mainly taught in French. The French language can also be crucial when it comes to finding a job. Frachet, also the General Director of Antananarivo branch confirms that many positions require French skills. While the French language appears to be in decline here, English is becoming ever more popular, especially among young people in urban areas and those wanting international careers.
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