[lg policy] Ambivalence on the medium of instruction policy and access to education in Tanzania

Wed Feb 17 15:09:34 UTC 2016

 Ambivalence on the medium of instruction policy and access to education in
Tanzania
<http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/columnist/46993-ambivalence-on-the-medium-of-instruction-policy-and-access-to-education-in-tanzania>
Dr
GASTOR MAPUNDA 16 February 2016
<http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/columnist/46993-ambivalence-on-the-medium-of-instruction-policy-and-access-to-education-in-tanzania>
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A FORTNIGHT ago, I argued that for some reason, Tanzania’s 2014 Education
and Training Policy was intentionally made indecisive on which language our
education system should adopt.

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The policy irresolutely says that English and Kiswahili shall be used at
all levels of education as media of classroom instruction. This week, I
want to discuss yet another inexact and a bit wavering statement regarding
classroom interaction concerning the deaf, as presented in the same Policy.
The policy does realise that sign language is important and useful to the
deaf.

This mention is made on page 36. Besides, it declares that deaf students
fail to effectively benefit from education and training because of not
having in place a proper system of teaching them and using sign language.
With this realisation in mind, one would now expect a clear articulation of
the way forward.

However, what the policy says, and in passing (sub-Section 3.2.18) is that
“the government will facilitate the use of sign language and Braille at all
levels of education and training”.

What is amiss is the declaration that sign language shall be one of the
languages in the same way as Kiswahili and English, but specifying that
this is for the deaf.

Additionally, I view the policy ambivalent due to the fact that there are
many deaf children allover Tanzania, but there is no mention in the policy
that these will be facilitated wherever they are, or at least collected and
be taught together in particular centers so as to make sure that they all
benefit from the education system.

Right now deaf children who benefit from the education system are those in
regions where there are such schools, and these are very few. Simply saying
that the government will facilitate the teaching of sign language, or using
the Braille, does not say much to help the deaf in practical terms.

On the February 4, 2016 a project on teaching the Tanzanian sign language
for the educational development of the deaf child was launched in the
Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, University of Dar es
Salaam.

It is a small-scale project, funded from abroad. What was very moving was
the fact so little is known to the general public about the situation of
the deaf in Tanzania.

For example, from the project’s ongoing research which involved
232participants from the three districts of Dar es Salaam, of whom 94 were
deaf children, it was realised that 89 percent of the deaf children live
with parents who are not deaf, and 86% live with relatives who are not
deaf. This means that deaf children are not exposed to sign language at
home.

Besides, many parents and guardians have acknowledged lack of knowledge of
sign language. Another important finding relates to the fact that these
deaf children necessarily have to communicate with other people. What is
intriguing is where these different groups of people who communicate with
the deaf get their knowledge from.

Apparently, it was realised that sign language is not taught in mainstream
schools. What happens is that each person is a teacher of yet another
person.

But the teaching process is done by fellow deaf children, other deaf people
on the streets, and also from the dictionary. Of course, there are others
who are taught by teachers, some of whom have no knowledge of the official
sign language.

The consequence of having these multiple sources is that such haphazardly
taught language is full of mistakes, and, therefore, confusing. Think of a
teacher who learns a language from a pupil, or even a dictionary!

This suggests that there are serious problems with the use of sign language
in Tanzania. An important observation was that the deaf children themselves
complained of anomalies in their classroom interaction with their teachers.
For example, they complained that the main problem is that teachers use
signs which are incomprehensible to them.

This can be caused by the fact that those teachers get their signs from
different sources, most of which are unauthorised. Some teachers only talk
when they teach in class while aware that there are deaf children in their
classes. Besides, some complain that their teachers do not understand them
in class, and some are laughed at and ridiculed by other students who are
not deaf.

They also complained of some subjects being difficult. For them, the
easiest subject is Mathematics, and the most difficult is language. I have
decided to talk about this component of the policy on the medium of
instruction because I know that without explicit and well articulated
medium of instruction policy guidelines, some people in the society will
always be left behind. Even the efforts by the government to provide free
education will not be felt by some Tanzanians.

Besides, not putting in place mechanisms for ensuring that these policy
statements are implemented has a lot of implications for such groups that
need special attention.

For example, the said research reported that for the schools where there
are teachers with sign language training it was realised that children
preferred to remain at school to going home during vacations.

My suggestion is that the government should liaise with sign language
experts and make sure that appropriate steps are taken to facilitate
teachers in teacher training colleges, parents and guardians with deaf
children to be able to communicate with their children and help them
accordingly.

Other members of the community also need to be taught sign language
whenever necessary for them to be able to interact with the deaf as
smoothly as possible.

http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/columnist/46993-ambivalence-on-the-medium-of-instruction-policy-and-access-to-education-in-tanzania

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