Tanzania: Paying price for faulty English teaching

[Harold Schiffman]

Paying price for faulty English teaching
VINCENT M. WAMBURA
Daily News; Thursday,August 07, 2008 @15:28


SUCCESSFUL teaching calls for provision of right and adequate
facilities teachers and students need. A team of experts do the
groundwork for refurbishing facilities at Muhimbili University of
Health and Allied Sciences (MUCHS) in Dar es Salaam THE emphasis that
was once put on learning the English language became stressed less and
less in the late 60s onwards. Primary school leaving examinations,
then known as General Entrance Examinations, was administered in
Kiswahili instead of English as it had been the case earlier. As a
nation we became ambivalent about a teaching language policy in our
schools, which ended up with English being looked as a colonial
language, a language of the capitalists. Of course, it was not dropped
from the curriculum but the importance that had been attached to it
then was greatly reduced, especially after the introduction of the
Policy of Education for Self-Reliance in the school curriculum.

There were even some schools of thought within the country in the late
60s and early 70s that wanted to do away with the teaching of English
altogether. In spite of such hostilities from such quarters, however,
it was still retained in the curriculum.

Its teaching did, however, undergo certain changes compared to what it
had been in the 50s and early 60s. Until then, pupils had access to
Text Books and Supplementary Readers authored by local writers of
English and other competent writers.

School libraries were stocked with story books/novels written by such
popular authors as Charles Dickens. Some of the books carried the
following titles: 'Nicholas Nickleby', 'Treasure Island', 'Robin
Hood', 'Shylock the Jew'. In short, these books were then common
reading to pupils.

These supplementary readers, as the name suggests, were aimed at
supplementing work done by the pupil in the classroom in Grammar,
vocabulary, structure and sentence construction or all of them.
Debating clubs were encouraged in Upper Primary Schools during this
period in question. What happened then?

The introduction of the Policy of Education for Self-Reliance
necessitated a new approach to education, especially primary
education. Subject panels taught at primary school came into being.

Subject content had to be looked at again and revisions made English
as a subject being no exception. English textbooks and supplementary
readers were revisited. These had to be replaced by texts prepared by
the subject panels.

With regard to certain supplementary readers especially those written
by native speakers of English, it was felt that most of them reflected
capitalist and colonial attitudes and they had therefore to be removed
from the shelves. It should be stressed that the debating clubs
prevalent in primary schools in those days served as vehicles for
promoting public speaking in English. At the primary school level such
debates are now rare.

Remedies

Those who advocate the use of Kiswahili as a medium of instruction at
tertiary institutions argue that the incompetence of our children in
English is such that it cannot be reversed. They should therefore be
rescued by the medium of Kiswahili for the situation cannot be
righted.

I do not share this view because it is at best defeatist. In human
affairs, it is never too late to make changes. Policies are made by
men and they can also be changed by the same men. All we have to do as
a nation is to go back and see what went wrong, re-examine assumptions
made then. After that we can ask ourselves the following question: As
a nation, have we really had a comprehensive language policy on
primary and secondary education, say for the last thirty years?

I pose this question because in primary schools Kiswahili is the
medium of instruction. English is now taught from Standard One. One
would have expected that after seven years of English teaching pupils
graduating from primary schools would be in a position, not only to
comprehend it, but also to speak it fluently.

Unfortunately, this is not the case! Those who are selected to Form
One cannot follow their lessons properly. They encounter problems in
coming to terms with what is taught in Geography, Biology, Chemistry,
History or Physics. They are only at home with Kiswahili alone!

It is now common knowledge that in order to save the situation,
teachers make 'cafe au lait' by employing both languages. In a typical
classroom situation, the first sentence could be in English, the
second in Kiswahili, the third half in English and Kiswahili, the
fourth anyone of the two and so on.

There are no strict school rules forcing pupils to speak English from
the moment they come to school in the morning, in the case of day
schools to the moment they go home. The situation is the same with
boarders.

School bazaar may be held in English or Kiswahili depending on the
atmosphere, but if there is an important message to be conveyed, the
Headmaster, anxious to be fully understood by the entire school
community chooses to deliver it in Kiswahili.

Conversations are carried out in Kiswahili or in an English-Kiswahili
'cafe au lait' in the classroom. This is the situation as it is in our
secondary schools now.

No doubt then, when students join institutions of higher learning they
are still incapable of communicating in English effectively. Can this
situation be corrected? In my view and that of any serious Tanzanian:
Yes, it can be corrected, with deliberate efforts.

Suggestions

I am starting from the premise that the English language is still and
will continue to be indispensable for the future development of the
world and our society for many years to come. As stated earlier (in
yesterday's article), the world is forever becoming linguistically
smaller especially in this age of globalisation, a reality we cannot
run away from.

English takes a lion's share in international trade communications. It
is a language of computer technology. Tanzanians, like any other
people, are born with capabilities of doing and learning anything from
foreign languages to piloting rockets to the moon.

What we must do in order to promote the mastery of English is to make
deliberate efforts to that end. In the past and here, I am referring
to the 50s and mid-60s, we had for example, an eight-year primary
education system, English was first taught to pupils when they entered
standard five.

After two years of English learning, that is Standard Five and Six,
they were able to follow lessons in English in Standards Seven and
Eight. When they joined Standard Nine (Form One) they had no problem
with what was delivered to them in English.

How was the learning of English enforced at primary school? Well,
relentless efforts were made to discourage the use of Kiswahili on the
school compound. Those found speaking Kiswahili, especially those in
Standard Seven and Eight, were severely punished.

Furthermore, students who made serious efforts to speak 'Kimombo" (a
name given to English) were rewarded; given trips to places of
interest, usually far away from school and took part in inter school
English competitions - prizes were given to the winners.

What is more, middle school leaving examinations, named "General
Entrance" were done in English. That is why those of us who went to
school during this period of time, acquired a good command of English,
both written and spoken.

It is being suggested here that English should be used as a medium of
instruction from Standard Five to Seven and that final examinations be
conducted in English. That will be one effective way of motivating
students to make serious efforts of learning English.

The fact that their Mathematics, History, General Science, Geography
is taught in English, will be reason enough for them to learn this
language seriously. If after primary school pupils are so familiarised
in English, they will feel at home with it at the secondary school
level and of course, certainly when they join tertiary institutions -
they will have no problems whatsoever in coming to terms with complex
concepts in the subjects taught in these institutions.

They will therefore, ipso facto, be competent enough to be absorbed in
work market and be at par with our competitors.

Finally, let me stress here again that Kiswahili, as a language has no
danger of disappearing, simply because it is not used as a "Medium of
Instruction" at our tertiary institutions. It will be taught as a
subject in primary and secondary schools and at the university. How
can a language spoken by everybody from the man on the street to
university professors die? But the truth remains that it is not a
language of higher learning due to its relative novelty.

One does not need to stress here that it is a language developed by a
people who have not made any long basic contributions to knowledge in
the Sciences, Arts, Philosophy, Law Medicine and Technology. Older
languages like English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Greek are
highly developed because their speakers took a pioneering role in
development of our present knowledge many centuries ago.

Well, one might ask, "do we have the means to revive the teaching of
English to its 1960s levels?" The answer is certainly yes! All that is
needed is the political will to do so. As a nation we cannot fail to
make changes in our educational system for the benefit of our children
and grandchildren in order for them to survive in this competitive
world.

It is beyond the scope of this article to lay down details of how we
can go about implementing it. But with the political will we can do
it: Our government can mobilise its own resources, to that end. What
is more, investors both foreign and national, donors, private
organisations, religious organisations and individuals will certainly
be forthcoming for this noble cause once the government takes a
leading role. People will be encouraged.

It is also encouraging to learn that there is a growing number of
Tanzanians, who are enrolling their children in private English medium
schools here at home and in our neighbouring countries, as a basic
preparation for them to cope with secondary and later tertiary
education. They have the work market for their children in mind.

Finally, let me say this, that it has also been observed that some of
the strongest advocates of the use of Kiswahili, as a medium of
instruction at tertiary institutions do so for public consumption
only! They waste no time in enrolling their own children in English
medium schools whenever the opportunity arises. Therefore, Kiswahili
as a medium of instruction is good for other people's children but not
their own - why this double standard?

 http://dailynews.habarileo.co.tz/home/index.php?id=6410


**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************