Guinea-Bissau-Guiné

Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese Guiné-Bissau) is a state in Africa. It is located on the west coast of Africa facing the Atlantic Ocean, bordering Senegal and Guinea. More than 25 ethnic groups live in the country, which differ more or less in language, culture and social structure.  Although the official language is Portuguese and schooling is exclusively in it, few inhabitants have a good mastery of it; according to the last census of 2009, Portuguese is spoken by 27.1 % of the country's population overall (46.3 % in urban areas and 14.7 % in rural areas). The literacy rate is around 45%. Each ethnic group has its own language, which is also the mother tongue of its members.

The lingua franca is Guineabissau Creole, a Portuguese-based Creole language influenced by the languages of the various ethnic groups and spoken by about 60 percent of the population. School lessons are held in Portuguese throughout the country, although the vast majority of children do not speak this language at home. Making Creole the language of instruction has been very difficult up to now, since the written form was developed only recently and thus hardly any teaching materials are available in this language.