Sociolinguistics 7, Exercise 3: creoles and prestige

Tok Pisin: official status and use in parliament, yet English is the main
language of education (some schools use Tok Pisin in the first three years to
promote early literacy), and government documents are mostly in English.
Jamaican Patois: most Jamaicans speak it as a first language, yet creoles are
"often stigmatised as low-prestige languages" and Standard English remains the
more prestigious literary medium; a speaker's place on the acrolect-mesolect-
basilect continuum generally corresponds to social context.

What it shows: number of speakers and even official recognition do not by
themselves give a creole the prestige of the standard; prestige follows the
domains (education, literature, state services) in which each language is used.
That last step is my own reading, in line with Chapters 5 and 6; the pages
state the facts above, not that conclusion.

Source: Wikipedia, Tok Pisin; Jamaican Patois.