Kenya: Mother Tongue Education Both Effective and Elusive

[Harold F. Schiffman]

KENYA:
Mother Tongue Education Both Effective and Elusive

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Apr 20 (IPS) - A debate about the extent to which mother tongue
schooling improves the quality of education is emerging in Kenya, with
certain experts campaigning for children's mother tongue to be used as the
language of instruction in schools. Kenya, as with a number of other
countries across Africa, has a majority of its children going through an
education system that sometimes fails to provide instruction in the
language they speak at home -- which is the language they understand best.
This, it has been said, contributes to illiteracy -- and results in people
entering the workforce with inadequate skills. Experts maintain that
pupils are better placed to become literate when they start learning in
their first language, and then gradually move to another language, than
when they try to learn directly in a second language.

Studies conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation have also shown that children who receive basic
education in their own language perform better than those only educated in
English. Campaigns surrounding mother tongue education are now focused on
introducing policies that will effectively address mother tongue
instruction in schools. Kenya, for example, has a mother tongue policy
which allows children in pre-school and lower primary to be taught in
their mother tongue. In the later years of primary education and in
secondary school, English becomes the language of instruction. However,
this policy only seems to have been implemented in rural areas, according
to Mary Njoroge, director of basic education at the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology. "The policy is supposedly in effect in the rural
areas. In urban areas, there is no uniform mother tongue (instruction),"
she told IPS.

In urban areas, it is not unusual to find children as young as two years
speaking English, which is widely used as the language of instruction.
There is even concern that Kiswahili (Kenyas national language), has been
neglected. It is only taught in schools as a subject. "There is not as
much emphasis on Kiswahili as there is on English, which is a foreign and
colonial language," says Francis Ng'ang'a, secretary general of the Kenya
National Union of Teachers. "Kiswahili should equally be developed as a
language of instruction. The level at which it has been underutilised
raises a lot of questions. This shows a lot of colonial hangover, and the
trend must change." While he admits that English is useful, Ng'ang'a says
local languages play an important part in promoting culture -- and giving
children a sense of belonging and identity.

"It is therefore important to promote these languages at the very basic
level of learning such as nursery schools, then let the children slowly be
introduced to Kiswahili, and then English as they come up the ladder. This
must be done both in rural and urban areas," he notes. However, the
promotion of mother tongue learning requires broad support. "It needs a
lot of sensitisation on parents so that they can understand why it is
important for children to be taught in their vernacular," said Njoroge.
English remains sought-after by many, who view it as a superior language,
for the educated.

The campaign to have mother tongue learning intensified in schools also
enjoys the support of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). "We
uphold that mother tongue education is important, just like English,
because we live in a global world and we have to prepare children to be
both local and international citizens," says Haregot Teija Valladingham,
UNICEF's acting regional education advisor for Eastern and Southern
Africa. "Besides, when we are talking about achieving education for all,
we must deal with it (mother tongue learning)." But the cost of
implementing a mother tongue education system poses a challenge.

"This is expensive because teachers have to be trained and books
translated into the various languages. Most countries have many mother
tongues," notes Valladingham. Uganda has experienced this challenge. With
a policy that provides for the relevant local language to be the medium of
instruction in rural areas during the first four years of primary
education, one of the major hurdles has been the high cost of preparing
and producing text books and other basic learning materials in several
languages (Uganda has more than 30 languages). The government has
reportedly been able to produce material in about 20 languages. Certain
subjects also resist translation into the mother tongue.

"It is difficult to teach and translate concepts such as maths and biology
into local languages. Why not use English? English is easy to
communicate,"  Nelson Kaperemera, the director of basic education in
Malawi, told IPS recently. Malawi has embraced mother tongue education,
where the national language, Chichewa, is used as a medium of instruction
in the first four years of primary schooling. (FIN/2006)


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