Due to the fact that Reunion Island is part of France, the political language that is applied to the island takes note of this unavoidable legal reality.
Therefore, in virtue of Article 2 of the Constitution, French is the official language of the department: “The language of the Republic is French”. As in all the French Overseas Departments (DOM), all of the Republic’s national texts are applicable, but certain adaptations have been foreseen by the act no 84-747 of 2 August 1984, relative to the competence of the regions of Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique and Reunion Island. These adaptations concern the educational and complementary cultural activities relative to the knowledge of languages and regional cultures.
It must be mentioned that a law more recently adopted by the French National Assembly, the Law of Orientation for Overseas Departments (Act no 2000-1207 of 13 December 2000), came into vigour on 14 December 2000. Articles 33 and 34 of this law concern all of the DOM-TOM’s. In Article 33, one learns that “the state and local communities encourage the respect, the protection and maintenance of cultures, innovations and the practices of indigenous and local communities founded according the their traditional ways of life and which contribute to the conservation of natural surroundings and the long-term use of biological diversity” and in Article 34, one learns that “regional languages used in overseas departments are part of the linguistic patrimony of the Nation” and that they “benefit from the reinforcement of laws in favour of regional languages with an eye to facilitating their use”.
According to the Law of Orientation for Overseas Departments, Act number 51-46 of 11 January 1951, relative to the teaching of local languages and dialects, is applicable.
Inspite of the fact that Creole is spoken by almost the whole population (apart from metropolitans who come to live in Reunion Island for a temporary duration), French is the only language that is lawfully recognised. ????
French is also the only language used and recognised at the top of the hierarchy in the local administrative establishments, such as the Regional Council and the General Council, as well as by the deputation and the Senate. This is also so for all written communications in governmental offices and police stations etc.
When communicating orally for administrative matters, the inhabitants sometimes speak Creole, but this is not always the case.
French is the only language used in legal issues, although Creole could be used when informally communicating orally. The teaching system is the same as is metropolitan France, expect for the fact that the summer holidays are during the austral summer (December to February) and the other long holidays come at the end of the school year (early August to early September).
In 1997, according to figures supplied by the Secretary of State for Overseas Departments, infant and primary school pupils numbered 109417, spread out across 490 schools; Creole is only allowed to be used in infant schools. Secondary education, given completely in French, had 91805 students spread out across 103 establishments. There are also two agricultural colleges, which allow students to prepare themselves for a BEPA (Certificate of Professional Agricultural teaching) and a BTA (Certificate for an Agricultural Technician) in the same field of study as a BTSA (Certificate for a Superior Agricultural Technician).

The University of Reunion Island has 12633 students spread across the departments of law, economic and political science, science, literature and human science.
The University of Teacher Training (IUFM) was opened in 1992. The total student population of the island numbered, in 1997, 213200 people. Thanks to experienced, French speaking scientists, Reunion Island also has numerous important research centres such as the Volcanic Laboratory of the Piton de La Fournaise, the Meteorological Centre in Saint Denis (the fourth largest centre of the network of worldwide meteorological organisation, l’ORSTOM (French Institute of scientific research for the development of cooperation), the Botanical Conservatory of the Mascarins and the University of Reunion Island (in the areas of earth science, biology and vegetal physiology and marine ecology).
Whether it is the government or the research centres that are concerned, all the official documents are published in French. English is also used in oral communications, in addition to French.
Obviously, the present system, applied as it is in Reunion Island, keeps quiet about learning difficulties caused by the exclusive teaching of French and the importation of the metropolitan way of teaching.
One must not forget that hardly any of the pupils are originally French-speaking. This obviously causes learning problems, as the teaching methods are not adapted to pupils for whom French is a second language.
The situation is even more worrying for children that come from the Mahoraise community (from the island of Mayotte in the archipelago of the Comores) and that integrate the Muslim community due to their religion (Islam); seeing as their parents often speak only Mahorais, the children have a lot of difficulty in their schooling, as they speak neither Creole nor French and there is no integration programme offered to help them.
There is no specialised welcoming class on the island that can take on children that do not speak French, are often analphabetic in their mother tongue and that lack all motivation for lessons that are not adapted to their need and during which they understand very little. In brief, the local government does not have the financial possibility or the specialised personnel for this kind of pupil. They therefore nearly always find themselves together in the weakest classes and often comport themselves wrongly on a disciplinary level. As in the other French overseas departments the issue of schoolbooks creates social-cultural integration problems.
Reunion Island is nearly completely dependant on metropolitan France, not only in terms of its educational system, but also for the supply of its schoolbooks and other teaching documents. All of the non-white children – nearly all of them - grow up in a human milieu that is completely different from that represented in European schoolbooks and most of them see themselves as strangers in their own country. All of these problems have created a high rate of analphabetic children (15 to 20% in Reunion Island compared to 1% in metropolitan France) and illiterateness (nearly 20% of children are incapable of reading a simple text). This is seen as a disgrace for a French department. Having said this, the teaching of the Creole language could be accorded its place in the system.
Article 22 of the law no 84-747 of 2nd August 1984 concerning the competences of the regions of Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique and Reunion Island allows, in theory, the teaching of a regional language:

Following the judgement of the Comity of Culture, Education and the Environment, the Regional Council determines that complementary educational and cultural activities relative to the knowledge of languages and regional cultures can be organised in scholarly establishments according to the competences of the region.
These activities, which can take place during the opening hours of the concerned establishments, are facultative and cannot substitute nor harm teaching programmes and the educational programme as defined by the state.

In the domain of the media, there are three daily newspapers and numerous weekly and periodical ones. There are also the newspapers and magazines edited in metropolitan France.
With the exception of Tam-Tam Maloya (in Creole), all of the newspapers are published in French: Presence Reunionnaise, Korail Océan Indian, Les Nouvelles du CNARM, Le Bulletin du FNARM, Frances-Iles, Dom-Hebdo, Le Journal des fonctionnaires antillais et réunionnais et Plein Sud.
The public radio and television services are provided by RFO, the French radio and television channel for overseas departments. They relay broadcasts of programmes shown on France Television and diffuse a regional programme. Conform to articles 19 and 20 of decree number 93-535 of 27 March 1993 approving the assignment book and the responsibilities of the National Company of Radio diffusion and French television for overseas departments, RFO can effectively broadcast in Creole:

Article 19: The company contributes to the expression of the principal regional languages spoken in each department, territory or semi-autonomous region.
Article 29: 1) The company strives to portray different musical expressions by widely opening its programmes towards broadcastings of live shows. 2) When taking variety programmes in their entirety, the company, is to give an important place to French or regional music and engages itself towards promoting new talents. 3) The company is to make an effort to show a diversity of foreign pieces of work.

RFO shares the television market with Antenne-Reunion, a private channel authorised by the CSA from 1990 onwards.
RFO’s radio programmes are made up of programmes taken from Radio-France. The numerous local and private radio stations have seen a boom since their apparition in 1983 and they nearly all diffuse their programmes in Creole. As concerns the economic life of the island, French is nearly always used except when conversing orally; this is also the case for commercial publicity.
But one must not be misled; Creole advertisements are limited and appear to not be particularly profitable. French language advertisements largely dominate the market.

Reunion Island does not seem to have particular problems on a linguistic level, apart from the fact that the language spoken by most people, Creole, is excluded from most public functions or services, as well as that of schooling.
Some also regret the complete absence of measures concerning Tamoul; although this language is spoken less and less by the young and will soon no longer exist on the island. More than 100000 islanders are illiterate. This is a disgrace for a French overseas department.
For far too many years now, the island has experienced a high rate of unemployment at around 40%. This creates social unrest and uneasiness that is more and more insupportable for the islanders.
The social-economic situation seems to deteriorate to such an extent from year to year that one comes to ask oneself how it is all going to end. For many, the situation is not only very worrying but also even without hope now.
In conclusion, a glum future can be expected for Reunion Island, whether it be in terms of its languages, its economy or in other areas. Dividing the island in two is certainly not the solution to its problems.