[lg policy] Kenya: Parents Divided Over Language Policy

Thu Feb 13 16:26:59 UTC 2014

Kenya: Parents Divided Over Language Policy By Nduta Waweru, 13 February
2014

The Ministry of Education recently made public a policy that will see lower
primary children learn their school work in mother tongue. The Sessional
paper 14 of 2012 requires teachers to teach children below eight years in
the language of the catchment area.

However, the policy has elicited different reactions from stakeholders in
education, with Kenya National Teachers Union chairman Mudzo Nzili saying
the policy is against the aims of education.

"As already indicated, the country is moving towards social integration and
this cannot be achieved when at the same time we have policies with tribal
references as mother tongue shall always prioritise tribes," he said.
"Education in Kenya is to promote unity within the community, and the
sessional paper is not fair to social development and integration."

The introduction of the 8-4-4 system in January 1985 came with the
provision that the first three years of education should be conducted in
mother tongue and English to be introduced from class four to eight. While
in rural areas the language of instruction was the language of the
catchment area, Kiswahili is to be used in urban areas.

However, over the years, schools have resorted to English as the language
of instruction all through primary school. There were quite a number of
issues that arose with the adoption of mother tongue as a medium of
instruction.

According to stakeholders, the reintroduction of indigenous languages for
instruction in lower primary school is counterproductive for the
development of the country. To most of them, there are many disadvantages
of using mother tongue as compared to using Kiswahili and English,
including mother tongue comes with less vocabulary and cannot be used in
the teaching of subjects like science and maths. Furthermore, they argue
that teachers are not trained to use mother tongue as language of
instruction.

"Early Childhood Education graduates go through thorough pedagogical
training, where the use of language as envisioned in the sessional paper is
not a part of," says Nzili, adding that such a policy goes against Vision
2030 that seeks to mainstream basic education. He says the ministry should
take into account such factors while coming up with educational policies.

The reaction has been the same with a section of parents who consider the
move as backward.

"Mother tongue should be left to the homes and not dragged into schools,"
says George Obanda, a parent who believes that it is the responsibility of
the parent to teach their children their mother tongue and not force the
burden to teachers, some of whom may not speak the language of the
catchment area.

Christine Mbaya prefers her children to be taught in English and Swahili
rather than mother tongue.

"With these two languages, they will be able to interact with people from
different communities and prepare them to navigate the world," she says,
adding that children do not need to be taught in mother tongue for them to
be competent as they can do that in other situations.

Brian Kimani believes that the move will come with a variety of
complications.

"Consider places where the there are a variety of dialects, which one will
be used? And who determines which dialect to be used?" he asks. He said
there will be social problems in the future as such a move will give unfair
advantages to pupils from areas where Kiswahili is the language of the
catchment area.

According to Prof Egara Kabaji, the policy has been in place for many years
and the pronouncement by the Ministry is only supposed to make it
functional.

"It is categorical that children are taught in the language of the
catchment area and if it is an urban area, the language is Kiswahili," he
says. He said the policy is very important and we should all work together
to enforce it.

"Research has indicated that children will learn faster in the language
they understand. There is no pride in teaching your child English as a
first language. It is very stupid," he says, adding that ECD is not going
to be affected in any way as teachers are usually from the catchment areas.

The former chairman of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission,
Mzalendo Kibunjia, supports the move by the ministry.

"The constitution states that it is the government's responsibility to
promote indigenous language and culture, and how else would it do it apart
from using vernacular languages to teach children in lower primary school?"
he poses, adding that the people opposing the policy are just doing so
because of fear.

"The reason for this fear is the lack of understanding. Having a Luo living
in Meru county learn in Meru from class one to class three will make it
easier for them to understand how the Meru live, and thus enhance
integration," he says.

Dr Francis Owaka, a philosopher lecturer at the University of Nairobi,
considers the policy to have been overtaken by events.

"It was a good idea back then as it reflected the local realities, besides
teachers never used to go to training school and used to work where they
grew up. Now, we have teachers from other counties applying to teach in
Nairobi."

He said with the plans for national integration, the policy is
retrogressive.

"The policy has been around for the longest time, but now we should ask
ourselves why hasn't it been implemented? It is because it comes with more
disadvantages than advantages," he says, adding that the use of mother
tongue is one of the main reasons why students in urban areas perform
better than those in rural areas.

Dr Owaka says the domestication of science in Swahili is already a problem,
adding that the third tier of domesticating science further in local
languages is making things even harder. He said currently some students
still get to institutions of higher learning when they are still quite
illiterate, giving teachers a hard time, and thus promoting the use of
mother tongue will make an already bad situation worse.

According to a 2009 study, Actualising Free Primary Education for
Sustainable Development, by Mbatha Mathooko of Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture and Technology, some of the ways that can be used to ensure
mother tongue is feasible as language of instruction is to ensure that
learning materials in mother tongue is not only prepared but also expanded
and research over them done extensively. There should also be radio and TV
programmes that use mother tongue as well as training of ECD students to
handle vernacular languages.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201402130728.html?viewall=1

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