[lg policy] Tanzania language debate: "In a globalised world, looking inward is the wrong way to turn"

[Steve Sharra]

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OPINION/EDITORIAL

8 March 2015

MAFURUKI: In a globalised world, looking inward is the wrong way to turn

IN SUMMARY

You cannot turn around our failing education system by replacing
English with Kiswahili

I wish to contribute my two cents to the debate that has been
triggered by the recent decision of our Government to make far
reaching changes in the education policy in our country. This change
has led to the replacement of English as a medium of instruction in
primary and secondary schools with our very own Kiswahili.

Indigenous language

As someone who was educated in a developed foreign country that uses
its own indigenous language as a medium of instruction from
kindergarten to university, you would expect I would be supportive of
this big change.

And, to be fair, I have always believed that being able to acquire and
to impart knowledge in local languages is a mark of progress and
cultural maturity, not backwardness or weakness.

After all, most developed nations from North America through Europe,
Asia and Latin America to Arabia use their own languages as the medium
of instruction at all stages of schooling.

So why am I upset by the change? It is because I don’t believe the
changes were made in good faith nor was enough preparation made to
ensure all systems are in place and ready—and  we are not going to put
current and future generations of Tanzanians  at a disadvantage from
which they will not be able to recover easily.

Secondly, the arguments made by the proponents of the new policy in
justifying this change are devoid of logic and paint a picture of a
people who have very little or no understanding of the fact that we
live today in a globalised world where Tanzanians do not have the
luxury of being able to create their own reality that can be kept safe
from the effects of competitive forces that are a dominant feature of
today’s life.

I also suspect that the change may be nothing more than a knee jerk
reaction of policy makers to the steadily falling pass rates at both
primary and secondary school levels over the past 20 years and is,
therefore, a wrong solution to the problem.

Just as you cannot cure a gangrene wound by applying aspirin to it,
you cannot turn around Tanzania’s failing education system by
replacing English with Kiswahili as a medium of instruction, much as I
would love to see that in another life where all other problems have
been attended to.

I agree with Biyi Bandele, a London-based African blogger who had the
following to say about Tanzania’s new education policy:

“Until every single mathematical theorem and every single theory in
astrophysics and cosmology, and in medicine, and in chemistry, and in
every single sphere of knowledge is written or available in
translation in Kiswahili and Igbo and every other African language, I
personally will always reject and abhor that easy [and easily
comforting, xenophobic language] that dresses itself in the ultimately
empty, and cheap, and hokey, and cheaply sentimental rhetoric of noble
nationalism. I’ve been to Tanzania, and I’ve been to Zanzibar. And
I’ve been to many countries in East Africa. What Tanzania needs now,
what East Africa needs now, and what Africa needs now isn’t another
instance of brainless, reflexive, macho posturing [which this is].
What we need, what we really need, is to have tens of
thousands—millions—of our best minds, schooled not only in Swahili,
Hausa, Xhosa, and Yoruba, and every major African language but also in
English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and in Urdu, Hindi,
Arabic, Farsi, Chinese and Japanese, and in every single language on
this little planet called earth, where knowledge—not just cheap,
populist, propaganda—is disseminated.”

There is also the issue of fairness and honesty, or lack of it. I am
very curious to see if those responsible for this policy change are
going to move their children from the private English Medium schools
to the Kiswahili-only public schools where the rest of the country’s
children go. I very much doubt they will.

This policy may sound great and even patriotic but it will spell
disaster for the development of the Tanzanian human resource on whose
strength the very future of this country depends.

It is not too late to pause and reflect on the implications of what
has just been done. Rwanda changed the medium of instruction in
schools from French to English, which was a good decision because in
everything that matters (books, systems, teachers), English is very
well resourced even in Rwanda and the change did not cause any major
disruptions at all.

Rwanda example

I can say with confidence that if Rwanda had instead changed the
medium of instruction from French to Rwandese, it would not be the
much-admired fastest growing African economy it is today.

The change from French to English was a step up, not a step down as
will be the case with Tanzania’s policy choices.

Let’s pause and think and ultimately make decisions that will allow
Tanzanians to grow.

Ali A. Mufuruki is a prominent businessman and chairman of the CEO
Roundtable of Tanzania

-- 
Blog: http://mlauzi.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @stevesharra
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevesharra
Global Voices: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/author/steve-sharra/
TEDxTalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-otnO33fMhQ
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