ft would seem only natura! that children in bilingual communities should have the opportunîty te be educated in two languages: the language of the home and the ianguage of ether groups in the community. But the reality is different. In most bilingual communities the two (or more) languages do oot have equal status. Side by side with majority languages, which have prestige and positive social-economic connotations, there are the minority languages, often associated with low socialeconomie status and lack of educarional achievement. They are more or less stigmatized, and not considered as suitable vehicles for communication in school or subjecte to be taught. Therefore, all over the world examples cao be found ofchildren who are confronted with a language in school that they do not speek as weil as native speakers of their age, or not at all: Sarnarni-Hindi speaking children in Surinam where Dutch is the language of the classroom, Mozambican children who speek Shona at home while only Portuguese is used in school, Finrush chîldren in completely Swedish-medium classes, Sardinian children in Italian-speaking classrooms, etc., etc.

In all these cases there is what is often called a home-school Ianguage mismatch or switch, and rhis mismatch can have several negative consequences, for example, poor educational achieeement. There is in fact a vicieus circle, because the minority language is seen as a main cause for this failure, and its negative connotations are reinforced once again. Many wnters have argued that this situation can only be changed if the minority language is introduced into the school, and facilities for minoritylanguage teaching provided. In sectien 6.1 the arguments will be analysed that have been thrown back and forth, borh for and against schooling in the minority language.

Ifminority languages are inrroduced into the school, this can be done in different ways, depending, among other things, on the sociolinguisnc and the political situation in the community concemed. In section 6.2 we describe different types of bilingual education. There we wiJl also discuss an educational model for majority children (or children speaking a prestige language) that stimulates them to learn the minority language: the so-called immersion model.

Sectien 6.3 presents results ofresearch on bilîngual education: does it or does it not promote the educational success ofminority children, and whar are the consequences for proficiency in the minoriry and the majority language?